on our leadership

২২ শে ফেব্রুয়ারি, ২০১৩ সকাল ১০:৫৮

"Here goes my people and I follow them" – of leadership, thus spoke M. K. Gandhi – a leader of leaders-of-finest-caliber. He was the undisputed leader of British India and yet, he was not in the conventional league of leadership. Leadership of extra-ordinary intellect and greatness like the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Moulana Azad, instead of being stifled, flourished under his rather expansive shade! "A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves" - thus goes Lao Tzu (Taoist philosopher).



Ah, - our leaders belongs to a very different genre. They are leaders by virtue of divine imposition. They are not followers of their people's aspiration and/or desires. They rather shall lead as to their own aspirations and/or desires. And yes, they have a following too! And that's how, one may say, they are to be measured. This quote from Dennis Peer is but a jeering memento as to the mendacious greatness of our present-day great leaders - "One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you."



Yes it is true that some uxorious kind of their own people has dubbed them greatness with appellations like Jono-Netri (Leader of the People) and Desh-Netri (Leader of the Land). And that is great ...



Post-1/11 when I saw the glowing face Sheikh Hasina in Logan, Boston this afternoon - I wondered what kind of Jono-Netri is she who can negotiate her own release while scores of her own people still languish behind!! And I also wonder, what kind of Desh-Netri shall plead for the release of a once-enthroned prince who treated her beloved "Desh" with less dignity than a crumpled ball of discarded tissue paper!!



Well, they still are our leaders ...

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