India: At The Crossroads - The Hunt For A Leader

If we carefully scan the national scene today, the most disturbing aspect that comes across is the absence of a leader of calibre with a national footprint, a national following. The old guard is now on the verge of retirement, and the new guard has not yet stepped up into their shoes; this is further exacerbated by the spate of scams and corruption that has enveloped the country. Unfortunately, this is on all sides of the political spectrum, with neither the ruling party nor the opposition escaping the blame of corruption.

A mood of the nation poll, conducted 5 times over the past 2 years by India Today, shows a steady increase in the preference for Modi, and a steady decrease for Rahul. This is along expected lines: but the real problem is that neither is someone with a clear mandate and image- unlike Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, both of whom were, and are, highly respected worldwide for their knowledge, with the additional factor of a neutral and strong national footprint. This is tellingly absent in both the top candidates that have emerged in public consciousness today.

Is India in for another period of gut-wrenching change? It certainly seems like it; with the political class still unsure of how to deal with the newly resurgent middle class, as well as the spate of exposures that have buffeted them of late. The opposition does not seem to have its house in order; while the ruling party cannot develop its team, and learn to think beyond the Gandhi surname. It is indeed a shame that in a country of 1.2 billion the Congress can only find a Gandhi. I have nothing against Rahul; for all I know he may be an extremely capable young man. The point is that are we in a fuedal kingdom, or a modern democracy? Why cant the Congress have some real democracy at its core, and develop its second string leaders into people of national stature? Why should the baton pass from Father to Daughter to Son To Bahu To Son and so on and so forth? Conversely, the BJP just cant seem to get its house in order: it has some highly capable, tried and tested people of mettle (as does the Congress, to be fair: if only they could stop their Gandhivaad!)

And so, the hunt for a leader continues. While the Congress would have us believe that only 1 family in approximately 300 million families has the right to rule us (1.2 billion population divided by average of 4 per family), the BJP is unsure. I for one just cant figure them out. It seems they have yet to grow out of their old avatar and grow into a modern progressive party. Funnily, and paradoxically, it is only one of 2 Indian parties with the potential to achieve that and grow to national status; and most certainly the strongest contender in the race for the rediscovered party. The other candidate - The AAP - is too new to comment. Even the people of India seem to agree with me on this; most seem to be reserving judgement.

Both AAP and BJP should realise that the Congress has just presented them with a golden key: the appointment of Rahul Gandhi is not going to sit well with any number of Indian citizens- especially from the middle class. It has proven once and for all that there is no second string leadership in the Congress to speak of, and no leadership development. I, once an ardent congress supporter from the halcyon days of 1991 when the Congress fired the imagination of the nation, have now finally accepted with deep regret that it will never grow out of the Gandhis. I have nothing against Rahul: he is young, modern, educated, controlled- but he is a Gandhi. I cannot see why one family in 300 million families should rule us, we are after all a democracy.

I just hope that either BJP - or hopfully AAP - can take up the cudgel and present a strong alternative. The opportunity is now present in the form of this elevation of Rahul: the opportunity to present itself as a progressive, modern, forward thinking party with a true democratic core. A party that has outgrown its mistakes, and is at last ready for national leadership. The AAP might take time for this, but the BJP can certainly do it - if it tones down its rhetoric and gets its house in order.

For The Hunt For A Leader is on: the leader to take us forward in this new century.......... :D :D :)

65 YEARS ON,KASHMIR AWAITS SOLUTION...

India celebrated its Independence Day on August 15 with profound reverence; obviously, even after 65 years have passed, a sense of huge achievement still lingers.

It is wished that India continues to make great strides in all spheres of life, enabling its people to finally realise the dream of an equitable development that will actually add to the real sense of achievement. And on August 14, Pakistan also observed its day of independence. The entire Indian sub-continent, nearly consisting of one fifth of the humanity, rejoicing is in itself a remarkable feat. Yet there is a tiny black spot on the moon, as separatists have asked people in the valley to mark August 15 as a black day.

For that matter, Kashmir has been experiencing a complete shutdown on the Independence Day for almost quarter of a century.

The Independence Day is naturally a moment of great pride and gaiety. Alas, in Kashmir it’s reminiscent of an intractable conflict. Notwithstanding the fact that both India and Pakistan consider the conflict on Kashmir a territorial dispute, people of Kashmir treat the problem as denial of their fundamental rights. The differing understanding of the nature of this problem has added to the complexities of this dispute. Does this problem entail a simple conflict on Kashmir or is the Kashmir dispute merely a symptom of a much larger and a deeper conflict? In case Kashmir is the only reason and cause of the conflict, there is still some hope left. Despite its proven intractability for the last 65 years and having triggered two-and-a-half Indo-Pak wars, the problem may get resolved eventually, irrespective of the question when. However, if Kashmir turns out to be a symptom of a deeper malice, there is absolutely no hope of any solution to be found howsoever strong the desire for peace might be. It’s a simple analogy: A property dispute between two siblings, no matter how much stubborn the respective claims could be, is probably resolvable with a proper give and take. On the contrary, resolution of an ideological dispute even between two brothers, unless one among them is completely overpowered, is highly unlikely.

Kashmir hangs in a perfect balance between hope and despair. Pakistan’s new envoy to India Salman Bashir has claimed that the newfound bonhomie between the two countries has never been like this.

Certainly, there is a marked upswing in the relationship between the two ever-bickering neighbours; several confidence-building measures have considerably improved the atmospherics.Still India and Pakistan have miserably failed to reach an agreement on even marginal issues like those of Sir Creek and Siachen. Kashmir is quiet, yet the dispute remains unresolved. Pakistan is placed at a precipice, still it has not given up the option of supporting militancy inside Kashmir. The Indian Army is bracing for an eventuality of a Taliban influx in Kashmir after the 2014 American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Will Pakistan again push foreign militants inside Kashmir to take on the Indian army? What does that mean? The disastrous consequences of such a reckless action may be well known to both India and Pakistan. Low intensity war in the past has proved to be more disastrous than all the Indo-Pak wars combined together. The lull in violence has hardly proved an incentive for the two nations to resolve their long pending disputes.Without the resolution of all big and small disputes, there can’t be any peace is an elementary knowledge. Still India and Pakistan have failed to solve even the smallest of the doable problem.Do India and Pakistan lack a keen desire, moreover the vision, for peace?

Despite a feeble desire, deep cynicism has come to engulf the entire subcontinent. A genuine autonomy may eventually satisfy the Kashmiri political aspirations. However, New Delhi considers conceding even limited political rights as an acknowledgement of Kashmir’s separate political identity based upon the two nation theory. Since forced assimilation will further alienate Kashmir, there seems to be no solution in the offing. In 2012, transfer of population from one country to another still continues, albeit at a very limited scale; Hindus feeling insecure in Pakistan are migrating to India. And a section of estranged population in Kashmir considers even a moth-eaten Pakistan as a saviour.

Partition of India in 1947 was believed to be a solution to a problem that has utterly proved to be a wrong prognosis. Since undoing the Partition will prove to be more disastrous, there seems to be no way out. In the absence of peace, the only other option left is destruction.