Wanted Leaders

The first time Delhi gave its mandate, though a cautious one, to Mr Arvind Kejriwal, he let down the people by abandoning his responsibility. Delhi not only forgave him but also extended the mandate with a shocking majority. Once again, his party seems to be letting down the people.

The bickering going on within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is not at all entertaining for the people of Delhi. Delhiites had huge expectations from the Party as proved by the votes given to it. Even before the honeymoon is over the partners have started bloating their egos. What has happened already is a terrible let-down for Delhiites as well as for many other people who had hoped for a better alternative in the party.

The situation in Indian politics vis-a-vis leadership is rather pathetic. Mr Narendra Modi has good leadership skills but is too parochial in thinking to be the leader of a country like India which has more diversity than his imagination can absorb. His emergence as the Prime Minister led to many unholy attacks on religious places, on people’s identities in the name of ghar vapsi, and on the very history of the nation itself. In all probability, Mr Modi will leave the nation twisted and distorted in many ways by the time his tenure as PM is over. He may, however, bring in more economic development at least to one section of the population: the section that is capable of competing in the system of Modian laissez-faire. Some of the others may learn to tap the so-called trickle-down benefits. Those who are not fit to deal with the system have no right to survive. Even their food will be taken away from them in the name of certain holy cows.

The crown prince of the Dynasty is absconding when he is needed the most. He chose to sit under some Bodhi tree in introspection and contemplation when his presence in the Lok Sabha was very important. Will he emerge as an enlightened Platonic philosopher-prince or as an avatar of the mystical Buddha? We don’t know. From whatever we have seen so far, we may deduce that politics does not seem to be his cup of tea.

A country with one-seventh of the world’s population in it does not have at least a handful of efficient and humane leaders! This is a tragic situation indeed.

Comments

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below. Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Don Bosco

Don Bosco (16 Aug 1815 - 31 Jan 1888) In Catholic parlance, which flows through my veins in spite of myself, today is the Feast of Don Bosco. My life was both made and unmade by Don Bosco institutions. Any great person can make or break people because of his followers. Religious institutions are the best examples. I’m presenting below an extract from my forthcoming book titled Autumn Shadows to celebrate the Feast of Don Bosco in my own way which is obviously very different from how it is celebrated in his institutions today. Do I feel nostalgic about the Feast? Not at all. I feel relieved. That’s why this celebration. The extract follows. Don Bosco, as Saint John Bosco was popularly known, had a remarkably good system for the education of youth. He called it ‘preventive system’. The educators should be ever vigilant so that wrong actions are prevented before they can be committed. Reason, religion and loving kindness are the three pillars of that syste...

Truths of various colours

You have your truth and I have mine. There shouldn’t be a problem – until someone lies. Unfortunately, lying has been elevated as a virtue in present India. There are all sorts of truths, some of which are irrefutable. As a friend said the other day with a little frustration, the eternal truth is this: No matter how many times you check, the Wi-Fi will always run fastest when you don’t actually need it – and collapse the moment you’re about to hit Submit . Philosophers call it irony. Engineers call it Murphy’s Law. The rest of us just call it life. Life is impossible without countless such truths. Consider the following; · Change is inevitable. · Mortality is universal. · Actions have consequences. [Even if you may seem invincible, your karma will catch up, just wait.] · Water boils at 100 o C under normal atmospheric pressure. · ...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault. For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy. Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves? Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian. In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically. Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification. In fact, they existed even before the Briti...

The Impact of Your Deed

Illustration by Copilot Designer Thirteen-year-old Briony makes a terrible mistake. She falsely accuses Robbie of raping Lola. Robbie is arrested. Cecilia is heartbroken. Briony herself regrets her act, but too late. All the painful harms have already been done. Atonement can be meaningless sometimes. Briony, Robbie, Cecilia, all belong to Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement (2001). Why did Briony make a false charge against Robbie? First of all, there was a serious misunderstanding. Briony presumed that Robbie’s romantic interest in Cecilia, Briony’s elder sister, was lust with a mask. Secondly, Briony was probably jealous of the relationship between her sister and Robbie. As a little child, Briony had jumped into a river merely to be saved by Robbie. When asked why she did such a dangerous thing, her answer was, “Because I love you.” Robbie is accused of raping Lola, Briony’s cousin. It was Paul Marshall who actually violated Lola, not once but twice. Briony did not see the man who r...

Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Search This Blog