SITUATION & GREATNESS

Blessed are the people who get an opportunity to work for a great cause. True is the saying that some people are born great, some make themselves great and on some people greatness is imposed. Greatness can never be seen in isolation. It’s always with respect to the internal & external environment, occasions and timings. This is true in every walk of life. Many times we see that there are many talented players at single point of time. Only exceptional and fortunate ones get a chance to prove them & much of the talent is lost in obscurity at that timeframe while lesser talented ones make name for themselves in dearth of sufficient talent at particular point of time. Similar to this in politics, entertainment industry & many other fields, the history has seen many celebrated leaders who were low on competence but are worshipped today as great leaders & statesmen because of environmental & situational factors at that particular point of time.

At present India is going through tough times. The country desperately needs honest, able & committed leadership. On one hand we see majority of the conventional leaders who still profess the same fundamentals & ideologies which they have practiced since independence. We see corruption in every walk of life. Again on the horizon of Indian society, appeared a social activist, who may be low on competence but high on commitment to cause, led the agitation on corruption, backed with bunch of ex-bureaucrats & youths, fought against the rotten political & bureaucratic system. Recently our politicians were forced to pass the Lokpal bill (Ombudsman) in the parliament. The fallout of the agitation resulted into the birth of a political force, Aam Admi Party (Common Mans Party), which surprised everyone in the country by bagging considerable seats in recent Delhi elections. This shows that one need not to be extraordinarily competent & gifted in order to be a successful leader, but the commitment to the cause, ability to read public pulse & act proactively, can transform an average person into a great leader and bring a massive change in the society.

Sometimes the greatness & leadership is thrust on a person by virtue of his birth, lineage & circumstances. History has seen such kind of leaders in past & these people till today are remembered as great stalwarts & thinkers who changed the course of history. When India got independence, two people were selected to lead it. One got the De facto Head of State position of by virtue of his lineage (he was competent but other people more competent than him were equal contenders for the position, but ignored) & other got the position of De jure Head of the State (ceremonial position) by virtue of his competence  & extraordinary leadership capabilities. Today if we analyse their contribution & India’s development since independence, we can easily see the effects of the average leadership capabilities & low commitment in terms of India’s moderate growth & weak economic / foreign policy. This shows that thrust greatness most of the time does not have longevity & in long run ruins the society. On other hand leaders like Indira Gandhi & Rajeev Gandhi, who were also low on competence side, got important position to lead the country, they led from front & transformed the fortune of country. Ms Indira Gandhi strengthened the position of India in terms of potent foreign policy & Mr. Rajeev Gandhi started the process of economic liberalization & made India an IT power. This only shows that young political leaders in in India, who got their position by virtue of their lineage, can also become successful extraordinary leaders & transform the society if they are high on commitment to the cause. Again I would like to say these fortunate people that they are the blessed people who have got a chance to work for the greater cause of working for the welfare of society by virtue of lineage, need only to be high on commitment, in order to transform the society. But the irony is that the commitment is by product of struggle & the position obtained by virtue of lineage, lacks struggle & many times does not translate into commitment.

There are some extraordinary leaders who made themselves great. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Franklin, Roosevelt & Sardar Patel are some examples. Another category of people is who are born great. I would like to keep Swami Vivekanada, Jesus Christ & Gautam Buddha in this category. I would like to end the blog with the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda- “Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is really great man whose character is great always, the same wherever he be.”

 

 

 

         

An evening at Haridwar Railway Station

Last Thursday (7th March-13), I had gone on a sales trip to Haridwar to meet one of our business partner in UK for Uttaranchal territory sales planning. I reached the office of our partner in the afternoon & finished the job around 4 PM. Same day I had a return ticket to Delhi from Shatabdi Express & it was scheduled around 6.10 PM from Haridwar. I reached Haridwar railway station around 5.00 PM. There was good one hour to spend at the railway station. The station was crowded with people waiting for their respective trains. Since Haridwar is a holy city, people from all walks of life, from different regions in India & world were present. All the benches were occupied, so I started roaming on platform no. 1 & observing the people. Beside me two foreigners were standing & talking to a disabled person with polio in both legs. One of them was tall & thin & the other was a little bit healthy. The tall guy was who was talking to the person on skates felt that it inconvenient to talk to the person who was sitting on skates. He sat on the floor opened a packet of chips & a cold drink. Soon after this the other person also sat on the platform & joined the discussion. To my surprise all three were sharing the same packet of chips & cold drink bottle. They were talking in the manner as if they all were old friends. After 15 minutes the train announcement was made & the tall person asked for permission to leave from his friend & guy on skates. Both of them shook hands with him & said good bye.

Then the person on skates took the wrapper of Chips & cold drink bottle towards dustbin to dispose it. On the same platform there were other people also who were littering the station with the leftovers. These fifteen minutes really touched my heart & gave me the lesson of life-

1.       When we get a better social & economic position in society in society, we forget the basic tenets of humanity & start treating the unfortunate & unprivileged ones in inhuman way.

2.       We often try to follow the western culture, but we still don’t know our own culture which teaches us kindness, love, respect & humanity.

3.       Does education makes us civilized? The answer is no. An uneducated, physically disabled person knows that littering is bad, but on the same platform there were so many educated people doing it.

ARE WE SUFFERING FROM ALZHEIMER’S?

The last two weeks were really turbulent for the India. Not only Delhi, the rape capital of India, but the complete nation was shaken by the shameful incidence of gang rape of a paramedical student in a moving bus. We saw a detailed analysis of the incidence in media & socio-political circles. But sometimes I ask a question to myself- Is this the only case of its kind? How long the protest over this rape issue & the media created hype will last? What happened to Anna’s anti-corruption & Lokpal movement in past? How long Indian people remember these issues?

Yes we are suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease. I don’t blame any single individual or a group but the complete Indian society. Today we talk of freedom at midnight & great Indian democracy. I have serious doubt that did we deserved the democratic governance in 1947? Was Indian society ready for a governance system which it didn’t have any understanding & experience in past. Historically India has been a feudal society & this feudal system is still prevalent if you see the socio-political system & political parties in India. We still see our future leaders in family lineage of the ruling class irrespective of the experience & competence in the heirs. To me democracy was the brain child of few political elites in then Indian politics during pre-independence era. It proved an excellent tool for the politicians at that point of time & still today to rule over the common people in the name of freedom & democracy. But the question is- who has to be blamed?

Alexander Pope has said- For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best. I don’t want to debate on whether democracy was the best option at time of independence, but still today I have doubt that neither common man knows the meaning of democracy nor they value it.  We have become so much selfish & self-occupied that we don’t see much beyond ourselves. Democratic system has given voting right as an excellent tool to select our leaders. Do we value it & exercise it correctly? I am pained to hear when people say that whole political system is corrupt. Now the question is that when we all know that the whole political system is corrupt- then we repeatedly vote these corrupt people & bring them in power. Now people say that they don’t have any option but to select few among these people, the less corrupt option. Again we only are to blame. I hardly see any intellectual winning any election (our PM who is considered to be one the most learned political personality has to adopt RS route). The moral of the story is you get the kind of governance that you deserve.

Coming again to the current wave of so called awakening of the common man, the mass protest against the Delhi gang rape incidence & the insensitive attitude of the national leadership towards it, we need to go in the root cause of the problem & possible solutions that can be brought to minimise & get rid of this cancerous problem in present Indian society. First thing that has to be accepted is that rape is a societal problem because of loss of social value system in the society. Female has always been worshipped in India in different forms like goddess Durga, Kaali & is considered to be source of power. Shockingly in present scenario she seems to be so weak that she can’t even protect herself. The moral values in people have degraded so much they forget before committing any such crime that they are also born of a mother who is also a female. They also have sisters & daughters. Since, Delhi/NCR has a dubious distinction of having the maximum number of rapes per years & it’s consistency in topping the list of such a heinous crime over past many years, we can analyse the social landscape of Delhi NCR. To me the first problem is the concentration of absolute power in a particular section of people. Also being political capital of India, every one boast of his/her connection with the people in power. They think that whatever they do, they can get away with the law because of their position, wealth & connection. Lord Action has said that Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is one famous term in Delhi CAROBAR meaning bar in car. People used to say that after 8.00 PM in Delhi, an appreciable percentage of the cars have carobar inside it. When these things happen on roads, the inappropriate action also takes place on the road towards a certain gender.

The loop holes in our legal system & delay in conviction & prosecution is encouraging the culprits to have of impression of getting away scot-free even after committing heinous crimes. Law is no more a deterrent to certain section of the society. We also have to look at the police infrastructure & adoption of the strict code of conduct for the police department in the country. The proper check & balances should be applied to this department.    

We have heard many times the spirit of Mumbai to bounce back after any calamity and about the culture of many other cities. Now the question is whether anyone has heard about spirit of Delhi or the culture of Delhi. People are so much self-centred that they hardly think about others. We all see these crimes being committed by people in in public, but how many of raise any alarm or come in front.  Few days back a self-proclaimed god said about the Delhi case that it’s impossible to clap with one hand. The girl is equally responsible as she did not plead culprits to leave her. This only shows the apathy of these kinds of people towards a certain gender (and this so called spiritual person himself has criminal charges against him). This does not show the attitude of that person but the society at large as he has millions of followers who virtually worship him & blindly accept all his deeds.

We saw a massive protest in Delhi & rest of the country for justice to the Delhi victim recently & also saw the attitude of the authorities towards protesters. If we see the demographics of this particular gender in the country, it’s almost 50% of the population. It’s pathetic to see this proportion of population begging for their independence, security & protection. We have a democratic governance system in our country and it can be used as a tool to get elected & come at the leadership position if they show unity. They will become the part of the system & create an environment of gender equality in the society.