We need a leader, not just a glorified manager
Leadership is about ideas and dreams,
making us understand why an issue deserves our attention, scolding us when we
are insufficient, inspiring us to aim higher.
Some
years ago, during an election in Delhi, we were talking to a group of men and
women in one of the northwestern slums. Who is a good leader, we asked. A
woman, thirtyish and charmingly opinionated, said “Indira Gandhi”.
“She
knew who was poor and who was rich and what each of them needed. She would go
from house to house asking after people. For her, everyone was equally
important.”
I
had a hard time imagining the haughty Mrs Gandhi stepping through those
shit-laden lanes and the woman was clearly too young to remember the Emergency
and what Sanjay Gandhi actually did to slum dwellers. But she had the right
idea: a good leader is one who can make everyone feel that they are important.
This is particularly important in a country like India where the weight of
historical inequities is enormous and discrimination based on class, caste,
religion and gender is a way of life. BR Ambedkar, who knew the pain of that
system first-hand, got it exactly right when he wrote: “Democracy is not merely
a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint
communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence
towards our fellow men.”
If
democracy is to be an articulation of mutual respect, a leader in a democracy
leads by showing respect to all. Not agreeing with everybody, of course—a
leader leads precisely by giving us direction—but ensuring that every
constituency, be it the RSS or Muslim, beef-eater or Jain, gets a polite
hearing and a reasoned response.
But
a leader is more than just a sympathetic listener. She (or he) needs to ask
questions and get people to respond candidly, listen to what they are saying,
and be able to engage and sustain the resulting debate. This might sound
obvious, but leaders these days are increasingly accorded an oracular status,
and it is rare to hear them challenged by members of their own team. Rita
Bahuguna had to quit the party before she took on Rahul Gandhi. Critics of
Narendra Modi in the BJP are pretty much officially sidelined. And while Arvind
Kejriwal talked about how much he values Yogendra Yadav’s advice, that didn’t
stop Yogendra from getting expelled.
Yet,
most people who have worked with governments have had occasion to ask why a
particular policy makes sense (implying that it does not) and have been told
that “what to do…the leader had a brainwave….” The norm in today’s India is
that leaders are not to be challenged, which is one important reason why so
many government programs end up half-baked or worse.
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Strangely, when Nitish Kumar
recently came out and actually asked for help with figuring out how to
implement prohibition, the media reaction was slightly derisive. Instead of
praising him for saying that he didn’t know, it seemed to question his wisdom
in trying. This is the kind of reaction that reinforces the sense that being
questioned or admitting ignorance is a sign of weakness rather than of
wisdom, and makes leaders and their hangers-on lash out at interlocutors.
What makes a leader great is not the fact that she (or he) has all the
answers, but the ability to inspire and empower us to find the answers.
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Link | Hindustan Times | 24 November 2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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