it's your flame

I am not convinced of the dynastic tendencies that are prevalent everywhere, whether they are in corporates or in politics. Our tendency to eulogize and patronize them leaves me a little unsure. Is our need for predictability and order forcing us to follow and be led by them? I don’t know. I understand the paternal and conservationist instincts of the leaders who promote their kin. But what is our excuse for blindly accepting them? In politics the current heir apparent to the first family of India seems to be taking the right steps to get his party out of the quagmire it finds itself in. In a party that lost its way briefly largely due to the infighting and territorial tendencies of its second rung, it probably required a surname to unite it and talk crucial decisions. Sometimes being decisive in battle is more important that weighty argument that follows turfism. Should the logical heir be a blood line? Who does the organization belong to any ways? Normally the sharply analytical Tarun Tejpal from Tehelka is pretty incisive with his searing insight. But to see him write these lines for the current Congress head was largely disappointing:
“And yes, as I bid you speed and strength, with the extra god by your side, may I make a final plea. You have given us of yourself, and of your son. Now will you kindly also give unto us your luminous daughter.”
Not that I have anything against the daughter joining in. Sure all able hands and heads are welcome. But only if he had read Shoma Chaudhury’s piece in the same issue where she talks about Rahul and the systems he is bringing in, to the once beleaguered party. She writes:
“In an innovative move geared to revive the dead old party root upwards, he hired a firm run by JM Lyngdoh and KJ Rao — former election commissioners and men of impeccable reputation — to run intra-party elections for the Youth Congress and the party’s student body, the NSUI. In the recruitment drives preceding these elections, threeand- a-half lakh new members have been signed on in Punjab; more than six lakhs in Gujarat. Sixty-five thousand new student members in Uttarakhand. Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry are next. Oxygen is coursing through the party.
“You get a true measure of Rahul if you ask the bright young people around him why they have given up brilliant futures to work in his core team,” says Lyngdoh. “As for intra-party elections overseen by an independent body, why has no party tried this before in 62 years? Every party should follow this now. It will strengthen the roots of democracy in India.” Says Rao, “We told Rahul people with criminal records should not be allowed to stand for party posts. He agreed immediately. He has also supported independent audits and complete transparency. What this means is that people doing actual grassroot work now have a chance to get elected into positions of power.”
That’s my point. Work at the grassroots and enable a system that allows, no, pushes able leaders to emerge. Those who have performed under harsh environments and worked for the cause while seeing the real bottom. That is the challenge. I wish Tarun had asked for system for more such leaders to emerge. One lucky dynastic roulette does not make a rule. Surely easier said than done, but running a country is not for the faint hearted.
I would want Jispa to take her own call, do her own thing and follow her own calling. Should she look at us as role models? May be for some traits/ behaviors, but career? I don’t think so. Look out beyond. Sometimes parents want their child to follow in their footsteps or reverse – be what they aimed for but never could be. Among the things that I thought I could have been but never could be was a nuclear physicist. I loved physics and still love it. Why dint I follow it? Too lazy, severely limited ability… hehehe. But that is one career option I would like to see. But when did what I like begin to count in any way!