What kind of Leader needed now?

Previously people admired at the leaders for their inspiring personality, sense of innovation, originality, sincerity and truthfulness.  Now the intellectuals who ought to be the heroes are confined in the ivory towers and their creations are taken as a thing of amusement rather than guidance to set right the malaise of the present society.  This is because people have lost the sense of value as their attention is diverted towards vain pursuits by the rolling stone rulers who know nothing but the art of word manipulation which is constantly keeping the people in suspense and the time is passing.  This means people are still in need of a proper leader who can keep them go on a smooth line.  The present day dictionary shows entirely different meanings for the words worship, respect and love! Only a leader with the heart of the chivalrous knight, the mind of the intellect, the attire of a gentleman, the talk of a diplomat and the behaviour and movement of an ambassador can clear the confusion of the present day.  Where is such a leader  and when will he come to the top of the world? 

Wrong System

Indeed there is something wrong somewhere in the system of the society in which we all function.  Political, bureaucratic and other demoralising forces such as communalism, casteism, regionalism, linguistic fanaticism, fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism certainly control the system of the society and hence corruption, nepotism, favouritism and all sorts of malpractices prevail eminently everywhere in the society.  Further economic inequality and social disparities ever keep social justice and security in despair.  Therefore responsible individuals in all walks of life face a lot of problems, troubles, predicaments and untoward situations often and in times of crisis bound to think whether to do or not to do duty so that their peace, balance of mind and routine may not be jeopardised by postponing, procrastinating and predilecting duty as far as and as long as possible and hence escapism in duty and transferring of responsibility on others are very much in practice today.

Indian Politics

India is a country of myriad politicians never the same as the politicians of other countries.  In all matters, politics looms large!  Like a gas everywhere it occupies all.  In the hands of the politicians, India reels recklessly!  There was then democracy of the people; now there is Dictatorship of money!  They change everything at their will.  Right can be wrong, wrong can be right!  A lie said thousand times can become a truth!

Majority of the people votes for the wrong person.  Then that wrong person is the right leader!  How is it? That is not to be criticized.  That is democracy accepted by all! Philosopher Socrates never cared for money power nor he bothered about army of men too; but he stood firmly for knowledge to the end.  Knowledge was power then; Money is power now!

Socrates spoke on something; politicians speak on nothing.  They make big promises; gatch votes with money; but once coming to power, they perform nothing.  Nothing will come out of nothing!  So, something will come out of something only!  Without investment no business can go on.  If something to be done, something has to be given.  That is not corruption; but it is commission.  To eliminate omission, commission is instituted.  That is why hue and cry about commission or corruption are avoided and covered.

This country only has produced Ramayana and Mahabharata; and no Epics worth remembering came thereafter!  Perhaps that is the reason, they still rule the minds of all.  A new Epic has to be written to last longer so in such a way as to replace the previous Epics.  Such an Epic can perhaps change the present day crises and create a New India of love, liberty, justice, peace and prosperity people prefer most today!

Everyone part of Society

The survival and development of any society depends upon the cooperative and coordinative efforts of all people as each and everyone is a part and parcel of society like various organs of human body doing various jobs to maintain balance, harmony, health, strength, vigour and vitality of the body.  Lack of education, improper education and unsuitable education of the people employed, under-employed and un-employed would produce only inefficient, ineffective, nonproductive and unprofitable output or results to the society.  So, political rivalries and bureaucratic redtapism will continue to hamper the progress of our society.  That is why nobody is ready to waste one’s time, energy and money for the social good of the nation and so national feeling or patriotism is lacking in our people.  But all aim for immediate personal benefits and fast buck for less work and more leisure.  How has this defect of the social system come up in our country?

Drawbacks

In the olden days caste based labour system was in vogue in the Indian society.  It had its own drawbacks and benefits to the society.  Then the foreign powers – Muslim and British powers invaded and ruled our country.  Due to foreign rules for more than 500 years our social system changed and Indian culture also changed.  After our country’s independence we still cling to the same old educational and legal systems left over by the colonial powers which have not changed the passive, fatalistic and lethargic activities of our society.  Now our society is caught between tradition and modernity, and is struggling towards development, progress and prosperity.  That is why our society is not progressing.  So, how this defect of our social system has to be rectified is the thing we have to see next.

Reforms

Everything starts from the educational and other practical trainings of the people.  It is not enough if we give our people freedom, rights and democratic government.  But we have to assist them to understand what their duty is through education and motivate them to do duty with discipline and dignity for the all round development of our society and nation.  Above all, reforms have to be made in the government level, education system, legal system and laws then only social system can be changed and social justice can be achieved.

Political gimmicks

Nowadays it has become a fashion for every politician to talk about social justice and social security.  They just talk but not explain or discuss as to how they are going to achieve this.  Rich is growing richer and poor is becoming poorer.  This is the reality.  So, only through economic security social security and justice can be achieved.  Through quota system in education and job social justice cannot be fully achieved and is hardly possible in this most populated country.  Social justice means providing food, cloth, shelter, education and job for all!  When this is going to be achieved is left to the people to image or dream about!

Dharma

Let us be practical.  First government should provide best or quality education to all and provide job opportunities for all both in the public and private sectors.  Education should make everyone to think independently, decide, find and develop one’s talent and use it in the job one does for the development of one’s self and for the society.  In that case the duty of the individual in life will be to gain knowledge, earn wealth in the right way, enjoy pleasures of the world and relinquish everything they achieved for the posterity, devote themselves in the pursuit of God or the spiritual attainment.  Then the social duty of the individual will be according to one’s talent or knowledge or nature one has to choose a field of work, say art, science, engineering, agriculture, architecture, literature, politics and so on and serve for the society in a cooperative and coordinative way forgetting al the differences of caste, creed, language and region.  That is called social justice, dharma and Indian culture today.

What is Politics?

Politics is the art and science of governing the people.  Now, the persons who are influential, famous and popular are entering politics and coming to power, if they have money and the support of some political parties.  Whether they know anything about art and science or not, if they know the knack to talk with attractive words and the tricks to escape from difficult situations and opportunities, they are more than qualified to become politicians.  That is why poly-tricks have become the appropriate meaning for the word politics rather than prudence or sagacity.  As anybody can come to power by catching votes using money, politics has become a breeding ground for corruption, malpractices, nepotism, favouritism, etc.  As politics is full of third rate persons, it has become a gutter wherein anything and everything come and mix.  Therefore, it is certain the last and easy resort of a scoundrel can be politics only!

What Politicians Do?

Before election, these persons talk about socio-economic development and once they coe to power they devote their full time for self development only.  When this is so, how can economy and society of a nation can be developed?  Democracy, socialism, capitalism and communism are the topics of discussions in all nations of the world.  Thinkers, intellectuals and individuals have no place to set right these problems as they are very meager in number, though they have freedom and rights in a democratic State.

Drawbacks of and Reforms for Democracy

The drawback of democracy is the decision of the majority or quantity is upheld at the expense of the minority or quality and very often justice fails in this form of government too!  To maintain the quality of democracy, men of quality should be brought to power.  For that, as in education and employment matters, politicians also should be tested for intellectual, physical and moral fatnesses and the selection standard before they are allowed to contest in the election should be non-attached to power, position, possession, name and fame.  If we have men in power whether the form of government of a State is socialistic or democratic or communistic or capitalistic or whatever it is, there will be quality in the governance of the State.  There will be quality in the development of economy and society in the State.

World Politics : International Relations  

The security of a nation depends upon the international relations it maintains.   That is the point where the world picture begins.   The foreign policies of different nations, generally, contain the terms such as territorial integrity, non-aggression, non-interference, cooperation and co-existence.  After the mutual acceptance of agreements upon these terms through delegations, the ties between  the nations start towards the political, economic, social and cultural developments on the basis of friendship.  In the due course of time, the ulterior motives of the States come to the surface.   At the climax scene, either mutual settlement could strengthen their friendship further or a cold war would start changing the friendly ties into a subtle strangulation between the concerned States.   

It would be then, interesting for the world to witness a bizarre scenario in the world politics.   And in that circumstance a sort of uneasiness would evidently prevail everywhere.  This is due to the fact as per the view of Dr. G.P. Gough in his Foreword to Steinberg's HISTORICAL TABLES that “Peoples are connected with one another by a net work of contacts and obligations, visible and invisible.  The older the world grows, the greater the debt of each to all and of all to each.  Every one of us is a citizen of the world; each nation is a branch of the human race.  Geographical, racial and linguistic barriers blur but cannot destroy the fundamental unity of mankind.”  

Political Ideologies  

Penetrating deep through the surface of the international issues, it would be clearly ascertained that domination and control of the world by a single political system would be the prime cause behind any sort of military defence pact treaties.  Till the time of writing this article, the opposing political creeds are the “Capitalism” and “Communism”.  Both these orthodoxies preach that either of the two only can bring unity, prosperity and order in the world.  But the question is whether such a creed is totally feasible or not in their own respective nations is still a mercurial issue.  Besides this, the two super powers, out of anxiety and  tension, have been unfailingly augmenting nuclear weapons as and when  scientific inventions  useful for destructive purposes between them has not yet reached a saturation point. 

Political Ambition 

The international peace depends upon mutual respect, recognition of different political principles and co-existence.  For many years America was in isolation.  It developed itself in the field of Agriculture, Industry, Science and Technology between the years of isolation- 1814 and 1914.  Because World War broke out in Europe, America came forward to end it.  It did not make use of war for furthering its political ambition in other parts of the world.  But contrary to this, Russia, under the guise of one common cause, has been implementing its own designs which have brought a sort of fear, anxiety and insecurity to the world   

There are shocking evidences in history about the strange infiltration of Communism in the World.  In the course of 1918, by the treaty of Brest-Litousk, Lenin surrendered Armenia, Ukraine and all the Baltic States to Germany, because he was, at that time, immersed in his revolution, whose programme-bread for all , an immediate peace, land for the peasants and the dictatorship  of the  proletariat -which received  the widest support from the people.  After the First World War the new States so formed were Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Poland.  Under the Russo-German Fact of 1939, Poland was partitioned between Germany and Russia.  The latter went a step further and occupied Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, once for all.  The   Second World War ended dictatorships in Germany, Italy and Japan, but not totalitarianism in Russia. 

Cold War   

The actual fact behind the tug of war between the Capitalist America and the Communist Russia that has narrowed the scope of the human life as prevailing at present is a state of antagonism, mutual suspicion and rivalry that a single power may take up the leadership of the world over the governance of politics, army, economy, society and culture with the aid of Science and Technology.  In his DISCOVERY OF INDIA Nehru wrote: “,,, All the evils of a purely  political  democracy are evident in U.S.A.;  the evils of the lack of political democracy  in the U.S.S.R.  And yet they have much in common - a dynamic outlook and vast resources,... a faith in Science  and its applications, and wide spread  education and opportunities for the people.  In America in spite of vast differences in income, there are no fixed   classes,  and there is a sense of equality.  In Russia the outstanding event of the last twenty years has been the tremendous educational and cultural achievements of the masses.” Because of their vast strength and development, the rift between the two Super Powers has resulted in “Cold War”. 

Iron Curtain

Behind the iron curtain motivated by the dry slogan that “from each according to his capacity and to each according to his need” Soviet Union and other communist countries made their people to do duties without any liberty or rights for more than half a century and the workers of the USSR later knowing the lies of the authority pretended to do work as they were pretended to be paid!  As everything was going on in isolation, exchanges of new ideas were not possible and as a result developments in technologies were not possible.  As religion, literature, history, culture, etc. were not encouraged except science and technology and economically productive activities only, free thoughts and creative activities were not possible and the progress of the society was also not possible there.  As the route they were following was crude, difficult and obsolete, there was no quality in their workmanship and products; they could not increase the quantity of their products and the variety of their products was also very, very less.

Transparency

On the other hand the capitalist countries within a short period met with success in achieving all round developments in all fields because of their freedom of thought, expression, openness, creativity, innovation, incentives and entrepreneurship qualities of the individuals.  Because of openness and transparency of their activities, free exchanges of ideas in the fields of science and technology were easily possible among them.  Their road to developments in all fields was naturally easy and free.  Working people were encouraged with incentives and the quantity of the products increased.  The creative and the inventive activities of enterprising individuals were taken care of and given a free hand to show their best in the fields they were interested. 

A variety of new articles, things, etc. were introduced in the open market and because of wide reception and skilful workmanship of the employees, the quality of the goods improved very much.  As their ideology is not rigid unlike the socialist countries, new methods were adopted according to the changing times and efficiency in the work due to healthy competition and rapid production due to large scale mechanisation everywhere led to quick economic growth in all the Western countries including Japan, South Korea, etc. in the East.  Not only that, activities in arts and literature also improved and increased due to freedom of thought and expression which improved social thinking and the standard of living of the people there.

Failure of Socialism

Gorbachev felt communism should have been experimented in the village level rather than in the national or federal level and that was why it had failed.  He was well aware of the bureaucratic jingoism under the guise of socialism in his country.  Because of his statement like utterances and broad minded attitude he became a critic of economic machine that alarmed and confused the bureaucracy that controlled the steering wheel of the Soviet Union.  Socialism totally failed because it nurtured an oppressive and repressive bureaucratic and political structure.  So to change this trend as an antidote, he prescribed his famous perestroika or restructuring or reform for his country.

Democracy in Russia

The communist regime was pulled down along with the statues of Marx and Lenin in Russia.  The communist hardliners tried to take over the leadership of the country by kidnapping Gorbachev to keep in darkness as was done to Kurtchev once.  But Gorbachev was rescued by Boris Yeltsin, a Democratic Party leader, who then became the President of Russia after the democratic form of govt. with parliament was established there.

Problem of Peace

The problem of international peace still remains to be solved.  The peculiar doubts, suspicion, mistrust and fear of some of the countries like China, Israel and France make it impossible to bring about peace in the world even in the future.  Because of their particular humiliating experiences of the past, these countries want to be self-reliant as far as military is concerned so that they can face any eventuality independently and safeguard their sovereignty and identity in the world.  Therefore the threat to world peace due to the stock piling of Nuclear Weapons and terrorism of various bases such as racism, ethnicity, religious fundamentalism, etc. looms large.  Perhaps unless some statesmen like Gorbachev appear in the countries like Libya, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. the present critical situation cannot be changed and total peace cannot be achieved in the world.

Democratisation is the Way

Now the hopeful sign of unification of nations under one system is the process of democratisation which has recently started in the communist or socialist States like Russia and its Satellite States due to the bitter social awareness of the horrible dictatorial rule there and also of the knowledge got from the world news of the democratic States that gives highest importance and priority to social justice, security, liberty, equality, fraternity and right to think, speak and express anything and everything or best and wonderful things in researches, creative and inventive works for the benefit and satisfaction of the individuals as well as humanity. 

However the drawback of democracy in some of the countries is freedom without discipline due to lack of up gradation of laws according to the developments and changes occurring there and thereby leadership is losing control over the mass there and also due to the cultural vacuum increasing largely as a consequence of developing civilisation as per the scientific advances taking place there, which can be rectified by the introduction of cultural aspects in education and popularisation of such matters in the society through books, magazines and TV programmes by intellectuals and workers for humanity.

But whatever be the defect of democracy only democratic form of government, of all the forms of government in the world, has choice and is suitable for all types of people anywhere, because in this set up only selfless intellectuals who have serenity of soul without oscillation of mind and with wisdom can express freely, frankly and fearlessly in their writings in books, magazines, in their speeches in the TV programmes and social organisations opinions that could change the attitude of the people in the right direction.  Then only it will be possible for the people to decide whether “the conquests of Nature and the accessions of knowledge are to be used for creating frightful and inhuman ends or for creating the kind of progress” or Utopia everyone dreams about as opined by Aldous Huxley on The World’s Future in his book, HUMAN SITUATION while referring to the prediction of Leo Tolstoy.