People All Over the World want a Leader:

Frog Praying the God for Leader

यदी आप गुगल क्रोम इस्तेमाल करते हो तो हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिये इधर क्लिक किजीये. फायर फॉक्स आय ई इस्तेमाल करते हो तो भी शायद पढ़ सकेंगे। प्रयत्न किजीये।

Water Snake

Wooden Log

It is a human tendency to aspire for a good leader to protect their life and make it trouble free. This is applicable to all animal(s) in the world and may be in the universe. People hate leaders who instead of helping milk them for self luxuries. I remember a story in Greek mythology where frogs staying in a pond wanted a king (king in olden days was considered as leader). I won't go in finding truth about it but would place the moral of the story here. To read full story click here,  and fable can be read here:  "JUPITER AND THE FROGS: While the frogs were hopping about in the freedom of their pond they began shouting to Jupiter that they wanted a king who could hold their dissolute habits in check. Jupiter laughed and bestowed on the frogs a small piece of wood which he dropped all of a sudden into their pond.

As the wood splashed lightly into the water, it terrified the timid frogs. They plunged into the mud and hid there a long time until one frog happened to raise her head cautiously up out of the water. After studying the king, she summoned the other frogs. Putting aside their fear, the frogs all raced over and began jumping on the piece of wood, rudely making fun of it. When the frogs had showered their king with shame and scorn, they asked Jupiter to send them another one. Jupiter was angry that they had made fun of the king he had given them, so he sent them a water-snake, who killed the frogs one by one with her piercing sting. As the water-snake was happily eating her fill, the useless creatures ran away, speechless in their fright. They secretly sent a message to Jupiter through Mercury, begging him to put a stop to the slaughter but Jupiter replied, 'Since you rejected what was good in order to get something bad, you better put up with it - or else something even worse might happen!" Moral of the story is the people who want a leader must put the best efforts and thinking while choosing a leader. 

Vote to Select Your Leader

Bad leader or good leader is for the people to choose and in today's circumstances most of the countries have given this as a right to the people. In India people are reluctant to vote during election and then keep blaming leader. While voting also voters must give their mind and select the best one. Make him do work for the benefits of the society and not insist on personal benefits. All must remember what Jupiter told frogs.

Shiv Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

Auranzeb

There is another story in the history of India. Chhatrapti Shivaji had been the first person who fought with foreign Mughal rule and established independence for people in a small portion of India. He led the locals against a foreign ruler (erroneously it is known as Muslim ruler) and established independent nation for the locals (This is one of the unique examples in the history of the world who became king not because he was born as prince but because he carved and independent nation for the people and by the people). He further expanded it in the adjoining area for those who wanted self rule. Local Muslims also openly supported him. There is a story which shows his open mind to his people (citizens). The story is some thing like this. 

Mirza Raja JaiSingh

Mirza Raja Jaisingh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Singh_I), a general emperor Auranzeb (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Aurangzeb.aspx) sent to Deccan to defeat Shivaji and demolish the independent nation in Deccan. Jai Singh was called back and murdered during his return journey. Shivaji then tried to recapture forts lost during compromise with Auranzeb. However, he was not succeeding in his attempts. Once after such a failed attempt he stopped at a shack and requested the poor woman for a lunch. Although she didn't recognise Shivaji she cooked rice and curry and presented it. Shivaji was so hungry that he placed is hand in rice to start eating. However, his hand was burnt. The woman advised him to start from side and not from the centre. A bright idea came to Shivaji's mind. He understood why his attempt to recapture forts didn't bring results. He had open mind to accept knowledge even from a poor uneducated woman. Later he changed his strategy and not only recaptures all forts lost during compromise but more. Moral of the story is the leader must have open mind to accept suggestions from public and think on those. Leader of course knows better than others and decision taken must be implemented.

Both these stories show responsibilities of people and the leader. When both understand their responsibilities and work sincerely the nation gets good governance.

Now I want to express myself about leaders of India in last little over 100 years. During end of 19^th century and beginning of 20^th century prominent social and political leaders had been "Lal (Lala Lajpat Rai)", Bal (Bal Gangadhar Tilak)" and "Pal (Bipin Chandra Pal)" These leaders had full belief in British Judiciary System. They explained the law to the public and difficulties and aspirations of public to the British rulers. They followed route of legal battle and inspired people to come out with their mind and will to fight against torturous rule of the British. People had full faith in them and supported them at every step. After death of "Bal" 

Mohanchand Gandhi later known as Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to contribute towards Indian freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi had been disciple of Shri Gokhale. Gokhale was of the opinion that first priority should be social reforms and then freedom. Where as "Bal" and others were of the opinion that first freedom and social reforms. "Bal" believed that social reforms could be implemented more easily and effectively in "Free India" than "British India" 

Gandhiji accepted Gokhale's route.  Gandhiji proved to be the best leader in the world. My professor Sanyal used to answer to question why Gandhiji proved to be the most successful leader some thing like this. Indians never cooperate and Gandhiji gave slogan of non-cooperation to Indians so every Indian followed him. Leaving aside part of the joke in the statement moral is the leader must understand people, catch pulse of people and work in such a way that hidden characteristic of a person is enlarged to combine them in to one force. After people started following him he started teaching them guiding them for cause of the nation. This is how he succeeded. 

Swatantryaveer Sawarkar

There is example of SwatantryaveerSawarkar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinayak_Damodar_Savarkar). He had been much more intelligent and brought out many misgivings in society, highlighting obstacles in bringing people together, bringing out weak points in Smriti and many more. However, not only he didn't succeed in getting society with him but was branded as a staunch Hindutvawadi. In fact many Indians oppose him although what he preached is highly important for Indians as a nation. Examples are his thinking about cows, castes etc. He was staunch opponent towards banning cow slaughter and following caste system. He considered cow as a useful animal while living. He opposed cow slaughter as long as cows provide milk and manure. However, once these benefits stop, he had no opposition to cow slaughter. In his opinion society cannot be divided in to caste based on birth. India is still burning because of caste present system.  

Netaji Subhashchandra Bose

Netaji Subhashchandra Bose

Netaji Subhashchandra Bose hadbeen one of the greatest freedom fighter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSyGjun_tgc). Probably if he would have followed Gandhiji he would have been considered as greater than Mahatma Gandhi. His slogan "Give me blood I will give you freedom" didn't appeal to all the Indians. Hence he couldn't succeed in the war. 

Muhamad Ali Jinnah

There had been Muslim leaders like Muhmmad Ali Jinnah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah). Jinnah initially was a staunch Indian and believed in "One India" However, it is said that on his personal grounds he worked for a separate state for Muslims. He used Muslim pulse to get all Muslims together. 

Sarhad Gandhi & Nehru

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru had been staunch supporter of Mahatma Gandhi and care taker of Indians. He got people's support on this account. I have taken only a few examples to illustrates how leaders work. There are many more Indian leaders. However, my attempt is not to highlight their efforts but to explore their characteristics as a leader.

It appears that a picture is painted saying "India is against corruption" i.e. every Indian hates corruption. However reality is different. Every Indian wants that all must be corruption less except him/her. Indians are ready to pay small amount to get their work done or avoid legal action. The basic need of Indians is to get various certificates from birth to death immediately and without paying any extra money. All those fighting against corruption have not taken in to account this characteristic of a common Indian.

Honourable Annaji (Anna Hazare) and Babaji (Baba Ramdeo) have shown a daydream to Indians that by passing Jan Lokpal and bringing Indian money from foreign banks respectively would eradicate corruption from India. Indian Nation Congress (Congress) heading UPA and Bhartiya Janata Paksha (BJP) heading NDA coalitions are in no mood to do any thing about this. There is only one difference in these parties i.e. the groups of communities. Congress appears to be clever in making a group and appeasing voters. 

Indian National Congress

Bhartiya Jananta Paksha

A large number of voters from group made by congress take part in voting. On the other hand voters from group made by BJP hardly take part in voting. Because of this difference Congress leads in most part of India. Secularism preached by congress is far from the real meaning of secularism i.e. taking decision based on law of the country only. Congress gave many slogans like "Roti (Bread), Kapada (Clothes) and Makan (House)", "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (Military man and Farmer shall win)" and "Garibi Hatao (get rid of Poverty)" and reaped votes to get to power. Garibi hatao has been ridiculed by present government by declaring those who earn Rs. 20 or more are no more poor. The limit of 20 was changed to 32 later. 

Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi had been the most accepted Prime Minister (PM) because of her daring step to defeat Pakistan in East Pakistan (Now Bangla Desh) and liberate it. She could do this against wish of USA. Atal Behari Bajpai had been only PM of NDA. He dared USA and whole world by atomic test and had been secular minded. However, none of the political parties, coalitions and PMs gave thought or work for making India corruption less. Social leaders did take up this fight and the common man joined them. However, the fight was not between equals and corrupt people didn't want to give away their benefits so easily. Social leaders are expecting laws to be passed by the government to punish persons in the government.

Fight by Shivaji for Independence

This is similar to the efforts of Chhatrapti Shivaji as brought out in the beginning of this article. A true leader divides task in to many smaller tasks and then achieve it one by one. It is longer way but more reliable.

In my opinion, in order to get rid of corruption which is the major obstacle in development the task should be divided broadly as follows.

Citizen Charter

1.      Small needs of people from the government, other local government and private sector i.e. work like certificates, registration etc. With help of e-governance the total service should be made online with specific time period for every step. Presently there is a time limit for citizen but no specific time limit for the government. This should be other way round. Fixing of time limit for government response is more important. If a solution is found for this corruption at lower level in the government would come to end.

2.      There should be a law for some new bank accounts like "zero balance saving bank account", "special provident fund accounts" for those whose earning period in life is short, and some more. Details are available here: http://janahitwadi.blogspot.in/2011/01/new-bank-accounts.html

No cash Transaction

3.      After achieving this next portion should be to make money transactions safe and fast i.e. without using cash (Currency Notes), money should be transferred immediately and safely from one account to another. This is more important for illiterate person. A facility exists for an educated person but not illiterate person. While doing this it must be taken in to account that persons whose income is below poverty line cannot keep minimum deposit as forced by banks. A solution is described in another article referred above.

4.      Next task is to withdraw all high denomination notes (currency) from market. I have suggested a method for this purpose whichcan be read here: http://janahitwadi.blogspot.in/2010/10/preparations-needed-for-fighting.html

Foreign Banks

5.      Law should be passed then for those who have bank account in foreign banks. They could be given a specific time to pay tax say 60% on all money siphoned to foreign banks in unauthorised manner. In case the deadline given is not adhered to the entire money in foreign banks would be transferred to the Government of India. Care should be taken that the law should be flawless and binding on all foreign banks.

6.      Election reforms are very important to ensure the best candidates who understand citizens' aspirations and who know how to perform. There are some important aspects like bearing candidates propaganda expenditure by the government, making voting compulsory, restricting number of candidates contesting election, right to voter to select none from the list of candidates contesting election and more. Read more details here.

Development

7.      People cannot be lured just by some theoretical assurances. A proof is needed for assuring people that the assurances would be brought in to reality. Unless results of development are produced no citizen would be happy. Read more here.

8.      Population of India is increasing although there is an indication that rate of growth has been lowered. In search of work population migration is from villages to towns and towns are growing in to cities. Leaders need to find a workable solution and convince people. More canbe read here.

9.      Last should be laws for investigation, trial and punishment.

Fortunately India has a long history of democracy. India was ruled in a democratic way rather right from start of human habitation in a society. Present democracy differs only in method of selection of people's representative. During olden days leader was accepted by the citizens based on his/her qualities like understanding of aspiration and needs of citizens and so on. In the present form the citizens have a choice to elect a leader. Older system had a disadvantage of having a leader who may not be the real choice of the people or who doesn't represent people. Election system, if improved with a meticulous thought may remove this obstacle. In order to achieve this people need to find a real leader of citizens. So far no flawless system has been found not only in India but all over the world.

Indians fought for independence at least 8 times. They were highly favoured by the god in getting the best leader for every war. However all leaders didn't succeed. There is a need to study all these wars and assimilate various actions of the leaders and the results. This study would be useful for present and future wars. My understanding of these wars in brief is given following paragraphs. I don't claim that my analysis is 100% correct. However, my conclusions are worth considering.

Acharya Chanakya

Acharya Chanakya fought the first war of independence (There might be more wars but I start from here because it is adequate for drawing useful conclusions). Greek emperor Alexander invaded India and captured sizable area of North-Western India. Chanakya did not take any hasty steps. He organised a force of all Kings in India especially north India in to a single force. He took advantage of mentality of Indian kings towards their kingdom and threat of invaders from outside India. All kings fought as a single force and the invaders were driven out of Indian boundary. His efforts were successful although he himself didn't fight with sword in his hand.

Invaders

There had been many invaders from countries in the Western direction. Initially these invaders were satisfied with looting of wealth. Later they thought of not only looting but ruling and looting. Although there had been many brave kings in India individually they couldn't face the barbaric forces coming from west. Rajputs are the best warriors but they also lost against external forces. Probably there had been no Chanakya in India at that time. This resulted in slavery of Indians for centuries.

Shiv Chhatrapati

Entry of Shivaji (later known as Shiv Chhatrapti Shivaji Maharaj) on the stage of war for independence had been on time. He had no kingdom of his own to start with. However, his mother and father trained him in such a way that he could grasp and understand aspirations of people and work for providing solace in people's life. He worked and succeed in getting own rule for the people. In other words he established independent nation for people who didn't elect him but accepted as their leader.

In present India some are interested in creating conflict based on religion. They forget that there is only one religion in the entire universe. What generally people understand is religion is just a Smriti preached by selfless, intelligent and caring persons for creating harmony among members of society. These rules are neither universal nor eternal. These are related to time, place and society. It is worthless to compare so called religions (i.e. different Smritis). Swami Vivekananda clarifies that universal and eternal religion has two parts first Vedanta and second Smriti. Vedanta is universal and eternal. However, Smriti needs change if any of the three factors referred above i.e. time, place and society. Once this is understood there shall be no war among persons belonging to different Smritis. In today's world solution is found through "Nation's Constitution" This constitution is the Smriti for every nation. During 1857 people fought for defeating British and free India. Nanasaheb Peshava was supposed to be the leader of Indians during this war. However, the outbreak of unrest had been spontaneous and Nanasaheb could not bind it together. Hence, Indians lost this Third war for independence.

Indians did not stop their struggle for independence. Now war started with vigorously. There had been differences among various leaders. Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak though social reforms are necessary. However, those can be better carried out in independent India rather than British India. On the other hand leaders like Agarkar stressed on social reforms first and then independence. Most of the leaders from different parts of India however wanted freedom first. Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Bose joined hands together and opened front against British. This war had been the forth war and was fought as a legal battle. Indians had great faith in judicial system. This had been the longest war. During life time of Lal-Bal-Pal war remained inconclusive. After death of Lokmanya Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi took the reigns in his hand. He had experience of fighting against British in South Africa. People accepted him as a leader. His political guru had been Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gokhale believed in simultaneous fight for social reforms and independence. Mahatma Gandhi while accepting this improvised method for fight. He had great belief in ancient Indian culture of "satya" and "ahimsa" meaning Truth and nonviolence. He was readily accepted by Indians as their leader. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose believed in arm fight for independence. He raised Azad Hind Sena to free India from British rule. He got tremendous support from all over India. Many joined him and fought against British during Second World War. However, in spite of help from Hitler and Japan he couldn't succeed. Muhmmad Ali Jinnah had been with Indian National Congress for long time. However, he didn't have faith in other congress leaders and separated himself from the struggle for independence. Later he formed an independent political party for freedom for Muslims in India. The result was division of India in 2 parts viz. Bharat and Pakistan. This fourth war for independence had a partial success and resulted in divided India.

Lal Bahadur Shatri

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri were leaders during start of elected governments after independence from British. Both were true leaders of the masses and almost all people loved them. Nehru led nation in difficult time for economy. He tried his best to create jobs and feed every person in India. However he was more a developer than a politician. Indians had great faith in congress so he didn't have to do any thing political to get himself and his party elected. After his unfortunate death Lal Bahadur Shastri took over reins of Prime Minister. He was an ideologist than a politician. He firmly handled threats from Pakistan but lost in finalising a treaty with Pakistan. He couldn't bear the defeat at table and passed away. Then came the first woman Prime Minister of India i.e. Shreemati Indira Gandhi. She proved to be the best politician and tried successfully to reduce strength of Pakistan by separation East Bengal now known as Bangladesh. She committed a grave mistake in declaring emergency in India. Every Indian had been against Indira Gandhi. The change took place almost in a few seconds after declaring emergency.

Jai Prakash Narayan

Indians found Late Shri Jai Prakash Narayan, a true follower of Mahatma Gandhi as their leader. Jai Prakashji had been a social worker and not a politician. He thought of collecting family against prudent step taken by Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi could have been more offensive.  It appears Jai Prakashji was rather in hurry. May be he made a mistake in understanding political parties. Politicians can support any body who can put them on chair. Indira Gandhi and her Congress was defeated in elections by the combined force of all other political parties. This had been expected. After gaining power, Jai Prakashji was thrown aside by the politicians and started quarrelling among themselves. Indira Gandhi came back in power as the combined party of all except congress didn't have capability to govern. The fifth war of independence against Indira Gandhi had only a partial success. Since then (1980) except brief periods of 8 years Congress continued to rule India. Following table shows brief information. Click here to see source of information.

Prime Ministers of India

Sl No.	Prime Minister	Date of birth	Start date of (first) term	Age at beginning of (first) term	End date of (final) term	Total time in office	Date of death	Lifespan
1	Jawaharlal Nehru	14 November 1889	15 August 1947	57 years, 274 days	27 May 1964[1]	6,130 days	27 May 1964	27,222 days (74 years, 195 days)
2	Gulzarilal Nanda	4 July 1898	27 May 1964	65 years, 328 days	24 January 1966	26 days	15 January 1998	36,354 days (99 years, 195 days)
3	Lal Bahadur Shastri	2 October 1904	9 June 1964	59 years, 251 days	11 January 1966[1]	581 days	11 January 1966	22,381 days (61 years, 101 days)
4	Indira Gandhi	19 November 1917	24 January 1966	48 years, 66 days	31 October 1984[1]	5,829 days	31 October 1984	24,453 days (66 years, 347 days)
5	Morarji Desai	29 February 1896	24 March 1977	81 years, 23 days	28 July 1979	856 days	10 April 1995	36,199 days (99 years, 40 days)
6	Charan Singh	23 December 1902	28 July 1979	76 years, 217 days	14 January 1980	170 days	29 May 1987	30,838 days (84 years, 157 days)
7	Rajiv Gandhi	20 August 1944	31 October 1984	40 years, 72 days	2 December 1989	1,858 days	21 May 1991	17,075 days (46 years, 274 days)
8	V. P. Singh	25 June 1931	2 December 1989	58 years, 160 days	10 November 1990	343 days	27 November 2008	28,280 days (77 years, 155 days)
9	Chandra Shekhar	1 July 1927	10 November 1990	63 years, 132 days	21 June 1991	223 days	8 July 2007	29,227 days (80 years, 7 days)
10	P. V. Narasimha Rao	28 June 1921	21 June 1991	69 years, 358 days	16 May 1996	1,791 days	23 December 2004	30,494 days (83 years, 178 days)
11	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	25 December 1924	16 May 1996	71 years, 143 days	22 May 2004	2,272 days		31,998 days (87 years, 222 days)
12	H. D. Deve Gowda	18 May 1933	1 June 1996	63 years, 14 days	21 April 1997	324 days		28,932 days (79 years, 77 days)
13	I. K. Gujral	4 December 1919	21 April 1997	77 years, 138 days	19 March 1998	332 days		33,846 days (92 years, 243 days)
14	Manmohan Singh	26 September 1932	22 May 2004	71 years, 239 days	Incumbent	2,995 days		29,166 days (79 years, 312 days)
A	Indian National Congress and Congress (I) including coalitions (UPA)					19210+	Nearly 54 years out of 64 years since independence.
B	Bhartiya Janata Paksha coalitions (NDA)					2272	6 years (Plus 82 days)
C	Janta Paksha All coalitions					1392	Nearly 4 years (68 days less)

Atal Behari Bajpai

India suffered during last 2 decades of 20^th century on economical ground. Dr. Man Mohan Singh then Union Finance Minister fought against this and won the sixth war for India. Shri Atal Behari Bajpai then BJP Prime Minister led India successfully during crises on account of nuclear test. He brought India at level with top 5 nuclear countries. This is considered as 7^th war for India.

Presently in addition to other wars like food, accommodation, employment, development, infrastructure, direct taxes, reservation, casteism, water, electricity, irrigation, environmental protection and so on, two major enemies are Terrorists and Corruption. Today, India needs leader to understand and guide nation to take up all these issues. Priority of course should be for action against Terrorists and Corruption without neglecting other issues. The leader may not be a politician, rather a social worker who can guide politicians. Most important need is the leader must address all issues and not a single issue or part of an issue. It is well known that Lokpal alone cannot bring end to corruption. Stronger the Lokpal there is possibility that Lokpal may get corrupt. It is well known that power makes a person corrupt and absolute power makes the person corrupt absolutely. Similarly asking the government to bring deposits of Indians in foreign banks cannot end corruption. Hence, need is to go to root cause, divide task in many parts and then find remedy for every part in steps. If politicians are selfless and devoted to India it shall not be difficult to achieve the goal. However politicians care for themselves more than citizens. This is natural because they have to spend money to get elected and they have to make provisions for future elections.

Mahatma Gandhi

Lokmanya Tilak

Armed fight had been the only solution till end of 19^th century. However Indian leaders found the British respect judiciary. Hence the fight was changed to legal cases against British regime or asking the government to bring out a change needed for Indians. British government did yield to some of the demands but was determined to govern India. This was changed by Mahatma Gandhi. He took help of non-cooperation, fast unto death and similar methods. Finally British had to yield to demands of Indians and left India forever on 15^th August 1947. After independence Indians got government of their own. People in the government were elected by them. Hence Mahatma Gandhi's arms i.e. non-cooperation and fast unto death became irrelevant. 

Indira Gandhi

Jai Prakash Narayan (JP)

Jai Prakash Narayan (better known as JP) had been a social leader. He understood problems of Indians during rule of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister. He chose to fight the political cause with democratic method of change of the government. He succeeded in getting change in the government but the people he chose didn't allow him to succeed for a longer time. JP took a short cut action to develop a political party by appealing to all political parties to merge in to a single party to avoid distribution of votes against Indira Gandhi's political party. Probably, if JP would have raised a new political party to bring reforms in governance, his success would have been 100%. That would have taken time and JP being a social leader (and worker) he did not have time for political methods. He probably followed Arya Chanakya to fight against Indira Gandhi's rule. Today, a leader need to take lesson from this and bring out changes needed to fulfil citizens' aspirations.

Anna Hazare

Baba, Anna and