Leadership crisis afflicts all across the board in these turbulent times

@prashanthamine

Mumbai: It is not that the current Covid-19 pandemic that has tested the strength and leadership qualities of our leaders, the agitations, crisis and their handling too has to an extent exposed the flaws in our leadership.

What stands out as the leadership quality is the ability of the leader to adopt bipartisan approach to make both the sides agree to his views, the ability to resolve factional feuds, maintain cordial ties even with the opposition, is the rallying point in times of major crisis, has his finger on the pulse of the nation, ability to rise above narrow partisan lines, is abreast with what is happening around him, has humility, morality and is ethical.

Today these qualities are to be found in far and few between the current crop of leadership. Secondly there is dearth of leaders who are erudite in their disposition.

Sir Winston Churchill was good enough a Prime Minister to lead Great Britain in his first tenure during the Second World War between 1940 to 1945. But failed miserably in his second term as Prime Minister between 1951 to 1955.

In the post-war era, ill health and political gaffes cost him the post. It is a short-coming that most leaders who are born out of crisis face when the crisis is over. They often tend to lose the plot, unless they do not adapt themselves to the new reality.

Leadership comes from the very same strata of the society or the section of it. It often comes with the inherent fallacies that the society exhibits. Most of the political and administrative system squirmed at the sight of dreaded underworld don Arun Gawli becoming an MLA in 2004.

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The implosion within the Congress over the leadership issue is to an extent in varying degrees found latent in other rival parties. It is dormant in others because the leadership crisis has not reached the boiling point. Or the other parties do have strong leaders who can quell dissidence against their leadership.

Most of the leadership, especially in some political parties dominated by first families, often tend to witness stunted growth in leadership and it’s disconnect with the grassroot cadres and people in general. That usually happens because of leadership entertaining yes men rather than sane advisors.

What is happening in the Congress has happened or is bound to happen in parties that are family driven or headed by leaders of domineering nature. The desperate bid to retain stranglehold on the party often leads to undercutting potential rivals within the party, often leads to weakening the party from within. And if surrounded by yes men the decay hastens.

Take a look at Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Maharashtra unit vice president Chitra Wagh, who is basically an import from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). A firebrand leader who has taken on her former colleagues in the Pooja Chavan case. Until the arrival of Wagh on the scene in the party, the women’s wing of the BJP was not known to be aggressive or launched agitations on any issue.

The import of leaders from rival parties or ideologically diametrically opposite parties has also often exposed the inability of the party to develop its own grassroots base. What has raised quite a few eyebrows within the BJP is the recent admission of some left party cadres in the party in poll bound Kerala.

The BJP has done the same thing in poll bound West Bengal also. Recently, the Congress in Madhya Pradesh welcomed Babulal Chaurasiya who worshipped Nathuram Godse, a former corporator, into the party fold and consecrated him as a Gandhian.

It speaks volumes when ideologically divergent party like Shiv Sena sheds its ideological inhibitions to share power with the Congress to form Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra.

It does now appear that ideology and ism’s do not matter much as long as there are shortcuts to be taken in one’s quest for power. But the consequences of such actions in the long run are detrimental to the party and the polity at large.

Mergers and hostile takeovers may be good in the corporate world, but in politics they seldom do serve any long-term political interests.

A leadership crisis in times of such turbulence is what anybody can ill afford. Such times often test the nerves of the leadership and exposes its strengths and weaknesses.

The nation is headed for another round of assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, union territory of Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Given the kind of bloody clashes in Kerala and West Bengal in recent months, the spike in Covid-19 cases in some states and violent agitations of late is not only going to test our leadership, but the sane judgment of our electorate.

Right now, the crisis of leadership is a worrying sign for the future. Furthermore, ill-informed attacks on constitutional bodies like Election Commission of India (ECI) is the last thing that is detrimental for our democracy.