Save Me From Charismatic Leaders!

DM sahib,

After ruling over India as an unchallenged democratic dictator for seventeen years, Nehru left India in shambles when he died

A better epitaph for JLN could not have been written. A well written piece, sir!

Regards

DM Sahib

Thoroughly enjoyed your style of writing but with all due respect disagree with your thesis. Had it not been for charismatic people like Kennedy, Nehru this world would have been a dull and dry place with little vision and no passion. World needs more people like these, unfortunately or fortunately human beings are generally herd followers searching for their messiah.

Re: # 1

No the best epitaph to Nehru is Nehru place, a stinking slum and Delhi's worst District center.

Someone should bring out a photo exhibition nehru place a true tribute to nehru.

Sanatani

Sanatani,

Well said and welcome back, sir!. We would need a similar epitaph for the G-man as well. Any suggestions?

Regards

Re: # 2

Yes your charismatic Zulfie and beebie fkd ur country inside out. How that for making the world an interesting place.

Man if this is you level of thinking you r no different from the traitorious scum in India who worship Nehru.

At least no one in your country died starving many in ours did.

DM sahib is right though he forgot to add Rajiv Gandhi another of those charismatic fks who screwed our country inside out.

Santani

No unfortunately Narendra Bhai has made Gandhi Nagar even better than it was.

Sanatani

DM bhai: The secret to being "charismatic" is to give hope of a better future.

Some political leaders provide hope by making empty promises. Examples include ZAB and his empty promise of "roti, kapra or makan", Lenin and his empty promise of a "workers paradise", Nasser and his empty promise of "pan-Arabism", Musharraf and his empty promise of a "return to democracy".

Other political leaders provide hope by making promises they have the intention and the ability to actuall deliver on: Examples include Ataturk who salvaged a viable nation from the "sick man of europe", Jinnah who created Pakistan, Nehru who laid the foundation ("western education", stable civilian governments) for India's "tryst with destiny". If Nawaz Sharif continues down his current path of standing firm on the promise of "democratic politics" and the "rule of law" he may well end up joining the ranks of such truly "charismatic leaders".

Coming to Obama - not only is he making many right promises (improved communication with all nations, more emphasis on education, improved healthcare), they are also realistic ones. More important, these promises define his priorities.
As for McCain, he isnt making any promises other than some pretty stupid ones - staying in Iraq for a 100 years. And now he is trying to pick up some vague kind of "charisma" by picking a youthful woman as his VP.

Re: # 5

Santani Jee

Longtime not see, its good to hear from you even though it comes with its obvious baggage.

Zulfie was charismatic and for sure did fk the country, but the same cannot be said for BB (a) she was not charismatic and (b) never had the chance to really fk the country.

Zulfie may have fornicated with the truncated Pakistan but is still revered as one of the greatest, compare that to the bakra Zia ul Haq, boring, unpleasent, uncouth character yet he has left this country with a malignancy that refuses to go away.

Charismatic people are remembered for their good and bad deeds whereas the average joe may have screwed the whole system but then again is easily forgettable, no charisma.

chowk staff:

Thank you for publishing the article. There is a screw-up in the first part of the fourth paragraph (by me or by the editor, I can't say). It needs to be unscrambled.

Instead of:

"One of the young men who were mesmerized by Nehru’s charisma was the Junior Senator from Massachusetts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Kennedy’s candidacy was considered path-breaking in a similar way that Obama’s candidacy is being vwhen he defeated his Republican rival Richard Nixon. And when hiewed now: he was an Irish Roman Catholic in a country which had until then elected only Anglo-Saxon Protestants as Presidents; he was youthful and promised to usher in a brave new world. I was in India when Kennedy won his election for the US Presidency in 1960. We almost danced in the streets e gave his famous “ich bin ein Berliner� speech, we rejoiced as if he had said “Main Hindustani hooN� I came to the United States after his tragic assassination but soon enough to realize that his Presidency had produced a lot of sizzle but very little steak during his short tenure as its incumbent: his legacy can be summed up as (1) sexual peccadilloes which would make Bill Clinton seem like a monk (2) the bungled Bay of Pigs crisis which consolidated Fidel Castro’s hold over Cuba (3) pushing the US into the disastrous Vietnam war, and (4) the Cuban missile crisis when the world survived a world war by a hairbreadth though it is touted as his great success. The real reforms in the United States were brought about by his dull successor, Lyndon Johnson, who introduced dramatic reforms with his War on Poverty and the Affirmative Action Program to provide real opportunities to America’s black community"

It should be:

"One of the young men who were mesmerized by Nehru’s charisma was the Junior Senator from Massachusetts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Kennedy’s candidacy was considered path-breaking in a similar way that Obama’s candidacy is being viewed now: he was an Irish Roman Catholic in a country which had until then elected only Anglo-Saxon Protestants as Presidents; he was youthful and promised to usher in a brave new world. I was in India when he defeated his Republican rival Richard Nixon. We almost danced in the streets when he gave his famous “ich bin ein Berliner� speech, we rejoiced as if he had said “Main Hindustani hooN�. I came to the United States after his tragic assassination but soon enough to realize that his Presidency had produced a lot of sizzle but very little steak during his short tenure as its incumbent: his legacy can be summed up as (1) sexual peccadilloes which would make Bill Clinton seem like a monk (2) the bungled Bay of Pigs crisis which consolidated Fidel Castro’s hold over Cuba (3) pushing the US into the disastrous Vietnam war, and (4) the Cuban missile crisis when the world survived a world war by a hairbreadth though it is touted as his great success. The real reforms in the United States were brought about by his dull successor, Lyndon Johnson, who introduced dramatic reforms with his War on Poverty and the Affirmative Action Program to provide real opportunities to America’s black community"

you mıssed out on two of nehru's bıggest blunders....somethıng for whıch hundreds of mıllıons are stıll payıng the prıce...

he dıd not agree to the cabınet mıssıon plan....whıch would have resulted ın a quebec lıke canada ın south asıa....and he created the kashmır problem, by backtrackıng on the obvıous solutıon of a vote, after suggestıng ıt hımself...

had congress been led by gandhı at that tıme, south asıa would have been a much dıfferent place...

your analysıs ıs very ınterestıng (though wrtıng style ıs quıte medıocre, as usual)...ıt ıs obvıously too much of a generalızatıon...

charısma ıs the rarest of qualıtıes, whıch very few humans possess...ıt can neıther be defıned, nor learned...ıt ıs at the heart of leadershıp...though not at the heart of management...

ı have seen thıs ın busıness a lot...charısmatıc ındıvıduals can lead, but they cannot manage on charısma alone...ı thınk thıs ıs the dıfferentıatıng poınt that, perhaps you are hıntıng towards...

the best combınatıon ıs charısma plus management skılls....or at least the abılıty to put the rıght people ın the rıght place...

the best combınatıon of charısma plus management, ın recent tımes, has to be bıll clınton...the worst example of someone wıthout eıther would be george bush...a good example of charısma plus no management skılls would be benazır...

good managers are a dıme a dozen....charısmatıc ındıvıduals are a rarıty...

p.s. ı thınk you may be hugely underestımatıng obama...a black guy, wıth muslım roots, payıng hıs own way through college, and comıng from nowhere to defeat a shoe-ın future presıdent (hıllary) has more than chrısma...

...a thırd qualıty needs to be mentıoned here, along wıth charısma and management skılls - decısıon makıng...

thıs ıs somethıng ı have seen ın ındıan IT executıves...they are, generally, extremely weak ın the charısma area....relatıvely medıocre ın the management area...but extremely good ın the decısıon makıng area...

they are excellent at judgıng deals, judgıng clıents, judgın the market etc...

...to be a good leader, the order of ımportance ın qualıtıes would be - charısma, decısıon makıng, and then management skılls....

...to actually achıeve success, the order of ımportance would be - decısıon makıng skılls, management skılls, and then charısma...

ıf a person can make a correct decısıon on a deal, he/she can hıre charısmatıc people to close the deal, and can hıre people wıth good management skılls to execute the deal to completıon....

however, ıf a person wants to convınce other people that he/she can do a job, whıch he/she has never trıed before, charısma ıs the decıdıng factor....

rf786:

Yes, this is the message. As long as we don't get swept off our feet and do not treat them as messiahs who would deliver us to the promised land, it's okay to have someone provide a vision.

Sanatani#5:

I do not regard Rajiv Gandhi as a charismatic leader but merely a member of a charismatic dynasty. I think that if he had not started off with a massacre of the sikhs and had managed the bofor affairs well, his legacy would not have been that bad; indeed, he started the process of economic reforms, in particular in the telecommmunications sector; remember, he started using a laptap!

tahmed32#7

Obama is proving more and more to be a normal politician. His acceptance speech was quite a barn burner, but it was more like someone trying to rally troops, with standard jibes against his opponent. Instead of a promise of change, I saw it as more of the same.

But as they say in Pindi, "hud-si tey rung kud-si".

bulleya#10,11:

I largely agree with you (especially about my mediocre writings style).

I was not writing about India/Pak issues but I agree with you regarding the Kashmir issue (I used to have the same viewpoint as you re. cabinet mission plan but thanks to sadna's hard work and research of original documents and correspondence on this issue, I am less sure of that now). On Kashmir, he was totally inconsistent and contradictory; if he believed in a plebiscite, then it should have been held and he should have not used technical loopholes to get out of his commitment.

But if he really wanted Kashmir to be integrated with India, then regardless of the morality issues, he should not have introduced Article 370 which made it impossible to change the demography of Kashmir, which is the only way Kashmir problem could have been permanently resolved in India's favour. Here is an excerpt from Kuldip Nayar's recent column on this issue:

"Soon after Kashmir’s integration with India, then Home Minister Sardar Patel wanted some migrants from Pakistan to be settled in the Valley. Jawaharlal Nehru not only took him to task, but offered apologies to Sheikh Abdullah, then heading the Kashmir Government."

I agree with you that a visionary needs someone to complement his vision with management skills (which to me includes decision-making skills as well); if someone has both skills, it is "sone pe suhaaga".

Re: # 15 Bilawal Z.Bhutto has all qualities suggested by Romair.
How is mr. Rahul Gandhi rated in these depts.
Mrs Soniya Gandhi appears more quitely doing working type. Mr. Zardari wanted to follow mrs Gandhi, he needs to work quitely without making waves ?

Altafbhai has all qualities and his manages party very well except once he made mistake of not contesting in Karachi but then he corrected himself. One person who had know Altafbhai said about his management. He said he does not like his subordinates to over analysis and become paralised. He says do not get in that situation , always make decision and stick to it and if he finds it is mistake he says correct it. Altafbhai generally feels it is better to be in active mode and make mistakes and then correct than paralised. He hates "suspense or pralization due to over analysis."
Mr. Zardai management is little different. He let things slips it appears but he is in full control and has method for his madness and pralysis as that is his planed strategy. It appears mr. Z is setting traps for NS and he may walk in to it. Only time will tell.