'Here goes my people and I follow them' — of leadership, thus spoke MK Gandhi — a leader of 'leaders-of-finest-calibre'. He was the undisputed leader of British India and yet, he was not in the conventional league of leadership. Leadership of extraordinary intellect and greatness like Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, instead of being stifled, flourished under his rather expansive shade! 'A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves' — thus goes Lao Tzu (Taoist philosopher).
However, our leaders belong to a very different genre. They are leaders; it seems, by virtue of divine imposition. They are not followers of their people's aspiration and/or desires. They rather shall lead as to their own aspirations and/or desires. And yes, they have a following too! And that's how, one may say, they are to be measured. This quote from Dennis Peer is but a jeering memento as to the mendacious greatness of our present-day great leaders — 'One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.'
Yes it is true that some uxorious kind of their own people has dubbed them greatness with appellations like Jono Netri (leader of the people) and Desh Netri (leader of the land). And that is great.
But when I saw an avenging face of a sitting prime minister injecting the BDR tragedy in political football by advising her opponent to evacuate her cantonment residence to make room for families of yet more slain military men — I crouched in infernal disbelief. What kind of Jono Netri shall play with a wound that still remains raw in the nation's psyche!
And I also wonder, what kind of Desh Netri shall continue to occupy a state-owned stately mansion when she herself is rich enough that necessitates the so-called 'whitening of black money'! Well, then I remembered that this is the same Netri who once left no stone unturned for the release of a once-enthroned prince who treated her beloved Desh with less dignity than a crumpled ball of discarded tissue paper!
Well, the sitting and the ex-PM (short for Prima Donna) are of the royal kind. They are beyond the bounds of our petty ideals like democracy, equality, rule of law and the whole shebang … thus even the NRB children of the PM and her sister deserve a secure fortress to reside in for they can't trust their own people.
One – who can not trust his own, be a queen or a king; is no LEADER!!
Ellisville,MO
10/2009
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