Wanted: A National Leader with Integrity in India
Post General Elections 2019, India’s new central government will need to be headed by a national leader of integrity. It is imperative that the honoured post of the Prime Minister has to be kept unsullied and sacrosanct by the occupant in the interest of the nation.
India is a great nation. One of the oldest civilizations of the world, India has been shaped by a fusion of various cultures contributed by different religions, communities, sects, ideologies, philosophies, theologies, etc. This sixth largest country in the word is the largest democracy in the world. Our constitution guarantees to us fundamental rights ensuring a secular structure and fundamental rights and freedoms.
Therefore, this nation has to be piloted by a well qualified person, man or woman with intellectual worth, personal integrity and a charisma to govern the nation with the finger on the pulse of the fellow Indians. He/ she should be capable of steering the nation safe through the Scylla of ‘family’ pressure and the Charybdis of communal venom.
The nation wants to know if we have any such person. The post is tempting. Any charlatan will salivate at the prospect of such an august post with its power and perks. We are done for if such an eventuality will occur when a charlatan, by hook or crook, will grab it. Nor can we afford to hand over the rein of this great nation to a megalomaniac whose eye is on globetrotting in order to dine and wine with world leaders and sign underhand deals as per his/her own liking.
The nation wants to know if the electorate will opt blindfolded for a person who will not have the ear to the ground. Or, will the electorate use its sensibilities and susceptibilities to think of a party or parties which will form the government that will choose such a leader who can merit national respect? Or, will it surrender its sense of values to liars and soothsayers who will din into its ears lullabies and dangle before them nationalist lollipops? We badly need a Prime Minister who will make sure that the national wealth is not looted by chamchas and lackeys wanting to get away with the loot through the backdoor. Will h/she think of the nation’s internal security by not allowing terror outfits and communally coated marauding forces operating as private armies or senas? Or, will they function with his/her party’s blessings? The nation wants to know.
If caution is thrown to the four winds and if we allow such forces to rule over us, we shall be digging our own graves. Ayurvedacharyas claim that anaesthesia was well known in ancient India. So, in order to take capital out of the well known practice, the clever person at the helm might attempt to anesthetise the citizens with Chinese or Swiss-made laddus. God forbid such an eventuality.
It is claimed that Sushruta was the father of surgery 2600 years ago. So, in order to confer due honour to this ancient practice, we might even witness a number of surgical strikes which will eventually boomerang by having body bags of soldiers transported home. The nation wants to know if we wish to see this done through our next Prime Minister.
Takshila was said to have been the world’s first university in 700 BC. A scatterbrained Prime Minister may confer emeritus status to yet to be born universities through backdoor methods. We need to watch out. The game of snakes and ladders was created by the 13th century poet Sant Gyandev, it is said. Originally the game was called ‘Mokshapath.’ Will the citizens of India want the next Prime Minister of the nation to be the one who will invite us to his ‘Mokshapath’ game to lead us to ‘Nirvana?’
Past is past. Let us look forward. We need a Sachh Bharat. A true India, where the citizens will not be lynched for the profession they practice, for the religious belief they hold; where we can hold our heads high and cry aloud ‘we are free, we are secular, we have no fear of the ‘Big Brother!’ Where our freedom of speech is not stifled, our channels of mass communication not crawling before the powers that are!
We need a sane India, sachh Bharat. Where we all will behave sane and respect one another as members of one Indian family. Hence, we will need a sane person at the helm to guide and lead us towards sanity which unfortunately is in coma today. We will need a person with a sense of proportion, one who will not bark at us from the podium, nor sermonise us with past glories and empty promise for a future paradise. Barking and sermonising guys need to be relegated to the Bollywood-Kollywood backyard which specialises in mesmerizing the viewers into a make believe world.
That gentleman Prime Minister of happy memory, Lal Bahadur Shashtri, had this to say about India: “The unique thing about our country is that we have Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, and people of all other religions. We have temples and mosques, gurudwaras and churches. But we do not bring all this into politics.” Shall we happily hear similar words of sanity from the next Prime Minister? Or, will he/she be the one who will be party to demolitions and destructions of sanctuaries and prayer halls of other religions?
Winston Churchill nailed a politician thus: ‘A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And, to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.’ Yes, foretelling and promising professionals! God save us from such windbags!
And, finally, Jose Maria Eca de Queiroz of Portugal has this wisdom saying: ‘Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason!’