What kind of leaders do we have

As the combat operation against the terrorist gunmen who held Mumbai for ransom over the past 3 days is coming to an end many thoughts engulf my mind.
Watching Shivraj Patil, the home mininster of India speak, after every major security breach in India which has become a regular feature thesedays, is a pathetic sight. Agreed he showed no spine in taking any kind of strong action over past many years, but he could have shown some resolve and sternness when he spoke in public. Atleast some rhetorical strong talk and posturing could have gone a longway in assuring citizens as well as terrorists that some action might be forthcoming. But no, he spoke like a swami teaching apathy towards life, in a very docile tone, using such uninspiring language that listening to it automatically reveals that this man means no action. Why are we put up with him? won't he resign and go for penance in some ashram after repeated failure over past few years?

Did you watch the primeminister Manmohan singh address the nation when the terrorists took siege of Mumbai? As aptly summed up by Shobha De on TV it was "a lack-luster, uninspiring and robotic speech". He sounded like a student who has memorized something for an exam and he must spit it out quickly before he forgets something. Without any emotion, anger or angst or sorrow or resolve, without even a change in the modulation, he went on uttering non-sense which Iam sure if recorded would be suitable for retelecast, for each and every incident that happens in India.
Can he mean any action?

What a senseless move by Advani and Modi to visit Mumbai at the hour of crisis. Why is Modi projecting that, "if your government puts a value tag of 10lakhs on a policeman's life, my value tag is 1 crore. Hence I offer better value"?

Thankfully for most of the last 3 days, all the coverage is about the law and order, police, army, bravery of the hotel staff etc. I am sure people would have felt relief not seeing the political class on TV,who otherwise hog all the media space at the cost of valuable issues that matter to the nation.

Do we have leaders at any end of the political spectrum to lead India in these times of crisis? Leaders not because they occupy a chair, but because they can show leadership and rise above the mediocrity all around.
In every corner of India, all we can see are leaders who are ready to divide people based on religion, region, caste, language, class and whatever one could imagine.
We have, political right which tries to take advantage of the situation, without any concrete alternative, political left that preaches irrelevant ideologies (and will soon be out to protect the rights of the terrorists and to condemn the aggression shown by police and army). Political centreground is occupied presently not by moderates in policy but by impotents who are just unable to decide, jumping which side would give them the maximum benefit.
Are there any real leaders in the entire political class? If yes, please come out this is the time when India needs you. If not it does not augur well for India.

Regionalism and New Democracy

Recent attacks in Mumbai on the north Indian hawkers and taxi-wallahs as shown on the TV really present a sorry sight.We call ourselves inching towards a globalized world with no national barriers. We call ourselves a proud nation where rule of law holds supreme, unlike other dictatorships and monarchies across the world. We have commonly approved a constitution which amongst its other fundamental rights bestows right to move freely across the country and settle anywhere one wants to. What comes to your mind when you hear a situation wherein some X saying to Y that you are an outsider, get out of this place. Yes landgrabbers and mafia comes to my mind. But what happened in Mumbai somedays ago follows a similar logic. A group of people claiming to represent Marathi people warn North-Indians not to live in Mumbai and top of that resort to violent mob attacks on vulnerable properties and people. I am sure any true maratha would be definitely ashamed for being represented by such thugs.

Normally media, scholars,common public blames the leaders for instigating violence and in this case too they held Raj Thackeray responsible. After a week full of drama in which everyone except the north Indians involved and a poor HAL engineer emerged victors. It is too easy to blame leaders, but come on we are in democracy and the quality of leaders is directly proportional to the quality of its people.
Raj Thackeray might not have explicitly incited violence, but whatever he has said and whatever any politician ever said to gain attention, it is with a firm belief that it is not intelligent, rational human beings infront of them but it is a bunch of spineless, fourlegged sheep herd. It is the solemn duty of the people to prove that they are not mere sheep but rational human beings. But wow... what happened in this case, people without minimum common sense took the hint and went on rampage like a herd of buffaloes and pried upon all and sundry that came their way. Wow...its time to define new rules of democracy. Democracy is no longer a system wherein every human being is treated with dignity and is expected to choose the type of leader he/e wants to lead him. The new democracy is the one where human beings should be treated as dumb sheep and it is a process of leaders choosing the segment of sheep they want to lead. Democracy is no longer the place where leaders with different ideologies exist and the one whose ideology is supported by maximum number of people becomes the leader. In its new form it is a place where leaders with different sizes of herds besides them and whoever has more sheep in the herd, he becomes the leader.
Why blame the leader when the sheep are ready to be swayed by one way or the other.

Is that the path we are moving on in India!! Only time should prove. In addition to a hundred other factors which divide Indians into various segments one serous factors firmly confirms its place, regionalism.

PS: Sheep and buffaloes...very sorry.

Conveying offensive opinions and covering it up

In my college days one of my dear friends, Ravishankar told me a great rule of thumb to let people know your disagreement, when you are putting across your point, without actually using any offensive words.

Type 1 (Expression: Gentle disagreement):
For your information, "opinion or fact you want to tell"

Type 2 (Expression:Strong disagreement, in a slightly rude accent):
For your kind information,"opinion or fact you want to tell"

Type 3 (Expression: Boss, Iam really frustrated and if you do not understand now, I will bang your head type):
For your kindest information,"opinion or fact you want to tell"

Later I have observed keenly in real life and found that this is what happens in many cases and that is what people mean when they use some variant of For your information. I must confess, it is a matter of profound satisfaction of actually offending others without actually using any abuse.

In the new age of emails and online chats, tactics have changed. Now people resort to smileys. Write down all the opinion you wanted to convey or all the grudges you hold against anything and just add an innocent smiley at the end and abracadabra....(more smileys if it is more offensive, or a wink to sound cheeky)....you can defend yourself at anytime that all you said is in a good dose of humor and you really do not intend anything.....
Iam not concluding on this yet, I do not yet have a critical mass of examples to conclude that this indeed the case. My observations are on. Do let me know what your observations are....

Wow....found a thumping case to prove the above...covering up abuse with humor. Yesterday I watched the Filmfare awards hosted by Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan on Sony TV. Shahrukh clearly spitted venom on many people especially the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Bhansali, Ranbir, Shahid, even the little Darsheel etc all veiled under the garb of humor. Being an avid movie buff I follow the filmi news whenever I can and it was widely reported that Shahrukh is not in good terms with people in the above list either because of personal spat or because of personal insecurities. Just to make it clear, Iam usually a fan of Shahrukh the entertainer. But on this occasion he was clearly hitting people below the belt holding the armour of humor. I bet let anyone raise an issue with him tomorrow, he has the defense of people not appreciating light hearted, innocent humor....