Leader, What Leader !

Reading latest article by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, one is tempted to call it carrying water for the disgrace that is Manmohan Singh. Sigh. Where to start, it so abounds with insincere homilies that it is sufficient to induce cringe in any discerning reader.

However hard Mr Mehta may protest to contrary, the false hope that Manmohan Singh would amount to anything was a lie manufactured by pliable English media. But the truth always was , and still remains that MMS is nothing but a sycophant "anointed" by our lady of 10 Janpath only to ensure that the seat remains warm and to have a scapegoat to prevent any blemishes on the dynasty. there is some one to ant we all wanted to do well ! Well if wishes were horses then journalists would gallop. To call him politician, much less a leader will be, incredible yet true, an insult to few good politicians. He is a loyalist, a counterfeit, a yes-man never the real thing.
He is certainly not my leader!

Apologia for Manmohan apart, this article is also wanting on the philosophical side. Mr Mehta suggests that there exists a dichotomy between power and purpose, with power being the instrument to achieve the purpose. Now while one can make this arguement with respect to the responsibilities of the state, this is certainly not the motivation for leaders. As I have pointed out earlier both desire for power as well as desire for social welfare are the two dimensions along which leadership must be mapped.

Ultimately problem of leadership is one which doesn't resolve to any perfect solution, but a range of solution involving trade-off and varying results. However as a rule of thumb, a society can not have leaders much better than the cultural milieu.