What a TRAGEDY? I feel so sorry for our nice, honest and erudite PM. The economy he crafted so assiduously over 5 years and saved it from a total collapse 20 years back is in tatters today. And what an irony, this battering took place under his own charge. I wonder how will the posterity remember him – a man who pulled a tottering economy back from a precipice in 1991 or someone under whom a robust economy was pushed down the cliff in 2013? How much all Indians wish - only if he leveraged his shining clean Tinopal white image (a rare commodity in contemporary politics- possibly he is the only one of his kind) and extremely high approval rating, to great effect to rid India of the Jehalat of poverty & ignorance – an expression he used in his 2005 address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort (borrowed this information from M.J Akbar’s article in Sunday’s TOI- my memory is not that sharp). What a legacy he would have left – possibly on par with Gandhi, Patel and Nehru? I am sure, in his quiet moments of reflection, introspection, rumination and reminiscence, he must be regretting the lost opportunities and a lost decade(he talked about decades in his latest address) when the destiny had placed him as the arbiter of the destiny of 121 crore Indians. What a tragedy? Writing about leadership, columnist Mr Ian Bremmer writes in ET of 19th August “ As I look around the world, I see only three leaders of major countries that are managing to squelch opposition, carve out a more impactful role themselves, and undertake difficult reforms, all while leveraging their popularity and consolidating their strength” – in Japan, Premier Abe’s “Three Arrows”, in China, President Xi Jinning’s aspirational “Chinese Dream” and in Mexico, President Enrique Pena Nieto’s “Pacto por Mexico”. Mr Bremmer concludes – "And that is what a leader is meant to do: unite people, if not under one cause, then at least one shared vision. "How unfortunate to find our Prime Minister’s name missing?
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 05:07:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015