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May 10, 2009
Does India need its own Obama?
I just finished seeing a debate on NDTV on whether India needs an Obama-like figure in Indian politics--one who represents change, reform, and unification, someone who is charismatic leader, one who gives you hope about your future and makes you believe in it, even when there is nothing left to believe in.
The debate was interesting and similar thoughts keep popping up in my head now and then, especially when I watch the 'circus' that the general elections in India have become. Every party, every candidate, even the media knows and believes that its a numbers game and not about issues. What saddens me even more is seeing them acknowledge it openly that May 16th will decide who their next best friends are. I wonder if I should call our society politically immature? Or is it the 'chalta-hai' attitude that we are so accustomed to? Or am I asking for too much? Because given a choice amongst the self-declared 'leaders' out there, I have to choose someone.
I agree in part with the fact that we choose a party and not a prime minister at the national level atleast. But at the regional level, we do infact look for people who have the charisma, the persona sometimes combined with the ability to lead. There have been many examples of people having atleast some of the qualities mentioned above. N.T.Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh was elected based on the charisma he had. Chandrababu Naidu was known for his leadership qualities and was considered a brilliant statesman when he served as the Chief Minister. Though ofcourse to appease one section of the society, the other sections were ignored by these leaders. They were not perfect and we have to remember that Obama is not perfect. We can never have a perfect leader in this non-utopian world of ours. But what we are looking for is someone who can connect to a large section of society and bring with him/her a host of issues that are common to everyone. In the gen-next leaders of today, I really like Omar Abdullah, although I don't see him playing a key role at the national level.
So can we have somebody at the national level, who can combine leadership, charisma and be acceptable to all the sections of society? There has never been a person who could unify the country together on a common program. India is such a diverse country with very different socio-economic classes. Each class, each region has very specific issues which concern them. There has never been an overlap of issues or I should say there hasn't been anyone who has brought all the issues together to unify them and pose them as a common threat to the country.
We like to talk about poverty, racial and gender discrimination as being the forces of evil that need to be defeated at every level. But these issues have to be molded in such a way that they reach the ears of the common man and resonates with them no matter what class or social background they belong to. The common man has to identify himself/herself with these ideas. In other words we need a set of objectives, a set of directions, a vision for the future that can be put across to all the people of India and benefits of which can be reaped by almost all (if not all) sections of society. Until that can happen, until we can find someone who can do that, I don't think India can have an Obama-like figure to lead it.
I also believe, that it's too early to say whether Obama is a perfect example of a leader. He does have a lot of the qualities that one would find in a leader, but only time can tell whether he will be successful in what he envisions to be the future of the country. But plenty of leaders in the past have proven to have all the above qualities and have been successful in their programs. So what India really needs is a modern day Martin Luther King or a Mahatma Gandhi or even a Kautilya. One who can unify the country towards a common set of goals, one who has a vision and shares it with the rest of the people, one who drives them towards these goals, one who leads by example, one who is charismatic, modest, and humble in every aspect. I am not saying that unless we have someone like this we are a doomed society. What I am saying is that having someone like this would help us bring some of the important issues we are facing today at the forefront and would help us tackle them in a resourceful manner. Unlike the election 'circus' that we see today, perhaps someday the elections can be more about 'real' issues and the real people who are the true pillars of a great democracy.
Posted by Anuj at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)