“World is waiting for the next Gandhi”.

 Article on “World is waiting for the next Gandhi”.

The behavior of political leaders around the world today is a matter of grave concern. Leaders across the political spectrum, be right wing leaders in America or left wing leaders in China or Russia, are all increasingly demonstrating dictatorial tendencies.  Anyone closely following global trends will notice that in many countries, including smaller countries like Myanmar and Belarus, there is a tendency for national leaders to make all efforts to keep power in their hands at any cost. One justification that we generally hear is that, to run a centralized economy dictatorial personalities are needed for taking unpopular decisions and curtailing dissent during implementation of those controversial decisions.

It is not difficult to see a reflection of these global trends at the national and state level. Not only the Prime Minister of India but also some current and previous Chief Ministers have concentrated all powers in their own hands and are using/have used their power to influence all institutions including the media. In spite of their anti-people style and behavior they are able to win elections. They also have significant following among the public who have complete faith in their style of leadership. Something has gone seriously wrong in our world in our collective understanding on the art of leadership. Certain dangerous ideas seems to have percolated our collective consciousness. Politics was meant to be a platform for organizing the society. Unfortunately the present day political leaders have failed to understand the original meaning and objectives of the idea of political work and are focused on everything other than organizing the society. Many young people in countries like India, France, US and Columbia are concerned about this development. They are interested to bring an end to this political culture. In a webinar held recently many young people were speaking about the need for a bottom-up process of leadership building. They were also speaking about decentralization of power so that local communities can take responsibility for their own destiny.  According to Mahatma Gandhi’s political philosophy, only when every individual is in a position to direct their own destiny while respecting the reality of mutual dependency in society, can we say that we have achieve freedom in real sense of the word.

One of the most surprising realities is that many people who have actively participated in long-term struggle in the name of democracy have finally ended up being small dictators themselves when power came into their hands. We only have to look around carefully to find hundreds of such examples around us. Take the example of India, those who are in power today were the people who fought against emergency that was imposed by Indira Gandhi. In terms of curtailing individual freedom, an environment fear permeating in the air, using all forms of institutional powers to curtail dissent today’s situation is in no way different from what we faced during emergency. Capturing political power through horse-trading, using all forms of institutional power available at hand to not only suppress the voices of people and media but also the voice of political opponents are all parts of the repertoire of interventions to manage an emergency. So the real test is not how vocally one raises their voice against dictatorial tendencies in others but the real test is how one behaves when one gets an opportunity to run the same show. I have many friends who are opposed to any kind of authoritarian rulers. They will even risk their life to fight such authoritarian regimes, but when I visit their organization or institution I can see hints of their authoritarian tendencies as a leader. They have absolutely no interest in sharing power with their team members and have no faith in a participatory method of governance.  They don’t even think the team members in the organization are of any worth. These leaders gave no opportunity to anyone who spoke about decentralization of power within the organization. Psychologically speaking this is a classic manifestation of mirror image or shadow image. Leaders who raise their voice against concentration of power and undemocratic decision making are often fighting against someone who looks or behaves like them. Often their fight is not against the values but it is against a particular individual. They are in competition with whoever is in power and their mind is craving to be in that position.

I have my reasons to be concerned about the leadership model in many organizations. I believe that just by speaking for democracy or speaking against dictatorship things are not going to change. Our efforts at transforming our social and political systems should begin from us and our organizations because this is the place where we can bring about the change we seek in larger society. If we can’t run a small organization of 20 or 30 people democratically and in a participatory manner what moral right do we have to raise hue and cry about democracy in India or in the world.  Doing so is in no way different from political parties who speak against suppression of opposition when they are in the opposition but then go on to suppress the opposition when they come to power. Didn’t BJP say that they will create a heaven on earth if they come to power? But now we can see that the situation is much worse than what it was before? They have created a society full of mistrust, hate and helplessness. Probably this is their concept of heaven. Hence I have come to conclude that political parties, organizations, or individuals speaking about democracy will have to first demonstrate their faith in democracy through their own behavior.

Gandhi repeatedly reminded us about the need for total harmony between what we speak and what we do. He acted up on an idea before preaching. The problem in our country today is that a lot of people are preaching democracy without any desire to practice them when opportunity is given. People are now waiting in every country for new set of leadership that can feel their pain and be part of them to emerge. They want a leader who can stand with then and lead them from behind. Unfortunately the present day political leadership only know how to fight elections and capture power. They have completely forgotten the most important objective of political power is to serve the people and organize the society.  I am sure many young people in the world will address these challenges not by speaking but through their action. World is waiting for the next Gandhi!!!

Rajagopal.P.V

28^th June 2021