Reserving vs. Preserving Leadership

This month, a city shone while another burnt, ironically highlighting the success and failure of our education system. Even as Ahmedabad was held to ransom for demands of reservation from an affluent community, Chennai celebrated, having bred a world class leader – the new CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. The rags-to-riches story of a shy, studious boy from a middle-class family (whose engineer father earned a modest Rs. 3000 per month) captured yet again the minds and hearts of not just Indians but people worldwide.

People were fascinated to know more about Sundar Pichai, given that he was now amongst the most powerful leaders leading a world renowned company, Google. Report after report cited friends, family members, colleagues who knew Sundar to be extremely hard working and intelligent. By the usual yardstick of academics, while Sundar was brilliant in subjects such as science he wasn’t a ‘topper’ in school but went on to top his game later, winning a scholarship at Stanford. An alumni of IIT Kharagpur, even though now worth an estimated $150 million dollars, back then his parents had to really make their ends meet to put Sundar onto a fight to the U.S. Sundar’s story isn’t by any means an exception. In fact, we have numerous great minds who have striven hard against even more daunting circumstances to shine brightly. Education being a powerful leveller.

Which is why starkness of another city burning in the name of reservation also stands out equally. What is it that a young lad from a middle class family do so differently that another lad from another community can’t, who is perhaps even more affluent than him? What would happen if every community demanded amendments for the ‘prejudices’ it has to seemingly endure? How do you reserve jobs or seats for one candidate of a particular community/caste even if s/he is less deserving or less capable? Till when should a nation make its citizens forfeit their right to be treated equally for its own failures to provide basic services and facilities for ALL citizens?

The Patel-community (among the most affluent ones in Gujarat) standoff seems to be just a small trailer. We will have hundreds such communities across India that wake up and start demanding rights to be treated as special, or more equal, if we don’t revisit the feeble and outdated policies of caste based reservation. The government should earnestly review the reservation policy and relook factors that have perpetuated this politicisation of backwardness. Yes, it is true that development remains much skewed among regions and communities in India and that reservation has indeed been a great push to brining many communities at par with the rest of the society.

But now, even as the world has started wooing the great minds we breed, to develop their towns and nation, to feed its soul and grow its power,  it is more than imperative that we raise our leaders and give them the impetus to own their genius. In every field. To make every child want to pursue what s/he does best. That’s when our towns, our institutions, our organisations, our polity, our society, our nation will be replenished to thrive. If we really want India to be a contender as a world leader in the coming centuries we need to do away with the concept of Reserving. We can revel in the success of our many Sundar Pichais but real success would be to not have them to leave the country in order to reach their highest potential. The idea is to Preserve and Promote Leadership – the highest kind; rather than reserving leadership. Since anything achieved without merit is neither cherished nor preserved.

Each One Lead ‘OWN’

India is still reeling under its euphoria of bestowing a unified mandate for the formation of a new government – an event that received unparalleled attention, nationally and internationally. With the earlier United Progressive Alliance party having failed to deliver on various critical counts during its decade of uninterrupted rule, it wasn’t surprising that a change in government was in tow. Essentially, the country voted for the promise of ‘development’, their right to be seen, heard, be participants of growth rather than witness it from side lines. The promise for a better tomorrow heralding inclusive development – for each Indian to live among educated, literate, healthy and empowered societies – has been an elusive one since the Constitution was framed in 1950.

While the past few decades have witnessed India grow tremendously backed by rapid industrialisation, strong service sector and growth of agro-based industries, we still have a long way to go. There are belts still perishing due to malnutrition, hunger, sickness. It is about time we had a makeover to transform what drags down inclusive growth – illiteracy and lack of quality education, poor access to quality and affordable healthcare and dearth of employment opportunities. While the genesis and reasons these intertwined issues continue to plague us are myriad and merits a separate debate, the question arises is this - how much of a difference can  leadership account for?

In my experience as an educator, a principal, I have realised the importance of inclusive leadership, which I believe is especially relevant in environments that contain diverse communities. For e.g. the running of a successful school is critically aided by the vision of the management and refined and executed by the principal. However, it is equally important to have every stakeholder from the student, teachers, parents and management involved. It then is a joint responsibility to lead from at whatever level possible – to optimise resources, manage and cultivate talent, engage communities. 

One of the key takeaways from these elections is the people’s belief of the change a strong, dynamic and decisive ‘leader’ (‘from and of the masses’) Narendra Modi would do. While history is replete with examples where the greatest revolutions and changes were first conceived, visualised and driven by an involved and genius of a leader, it is equally evident that the vision will not be set in motion without the ‘cogs in the wheel’ place – here, the citizens in a democracy  – the you and me.

The entire nation had been rooting for a particular politician to come into power, believing that he is the panacea of most of the troubles that plague us – that he will be able to get our child in that preferred school, or let us take a guilt-free overseas trip, or gift our retired parents a chauffeur driven car, or get the prices of the vegetables down or help us spend more time with our family or stop corruption or help us get that promotion. It is in human nature – to seek externally for inspirations or for belief – religion has taught us that! It is ok and humane to be optimistic, to be hopeful, to want to be led, to be participants, to worship, to follow. However, it is equally important to lead, to take initiatives, to learn and educate, to ask questions rather than just seek solutions, to be without biases and hence have an inclusive mindset, to be civil, be vigilant, to speak up – to grow together.

When each one of us takes the responsibility of leading one’s course of actions with the goals of an ideal India as a backdrop is when the winds of change will begin swinging in our direction and elevate us – ALL of us.  For e.g. instead of only complaining about filthy streets or buildings, what if we stopped littering and cleaned our surroundings; instead of just asking what ministers could do for protecting women, how about believing in our daughters and teach them to defend themselves, stand up for themselves and teach our sons to respect a woman – by respecting their mothers; stand up when miscreants break law and harm someone else’s child…there are so many scenarios wherein we are in-charge, leading, perceived as leaders. 

While these are the tenets of what true education should aspire to inculcate within any learner, that we are still placing maximum obligation of being a change agent on just one man is perhaps the most unsettling observation through this election story. Clearly, we have yet to learn our lessons! It is only when we realise the importance of the role each one of us plays to make India the largest, DEVELOPED democracy, will we be able to really live in one. The importance of empowering ourselves and the people around us by being individual agents, leading change across the most basic realms, is a powerful lesson for us including our children. Surely, we must know that just one man cannot change a billion destinies while a billion choose to watch and believe that ‘good days are coming’!