Shashi Tharoor has resigned from government and I believe it’s another nail in India’s leadership coffin.
Amongst the Mayawati’s and Modi’s and Laloo’s of the world, Shashi Tharoor rises like fresh cream in a bowl of fetid and sour milk. Educated, urbane, internationally minded, this former UN diplomat would have been just the kind of voice I - and millions of middle class Indians like me - would have loved to see on the Indian Cabinet, especially during this time when the country is facing challenges that will decide its place in the world in the coming century.
At the moment, the general shape of Indian leadership is – let’s admit it – not great. Rife with corruption, with a bureaucracy that acts like barnacles on a ship’s bottom, with leaders who flaunt their corruption, it still has ambitions to claim global leadership.
Yet India has a 35% illiteracy rate, in some parts, its population is more malnourished than that of sub Saharan Africa, and the conflicts in the Eastern Red Corridor and in Kashmir are claiming lives on a daily basis.
Shashi Tharoor is the kind of man India badly needs. I’ve read his books, his statements, heard his interviews - hell, I’ve interviewed him myself many years ago, when he was with the UN in New York. I’m convinced of his general smarts and have been a fan of this charming, sophisticated, clever man for years. So I really can’t understand how on earth he could have been so stupid stupid stupid.
Perhaps he thought that if Laloo Prasad and Mayawati can get away with naked greed, nepotism and corruption, no one would think twice if he gave away a few shares to his girlfriend. Of course he didn’t say he was arbitarily giving away the equity of the IPL Kochi franchise. He claims that Sunanda Puskhar earnt the US$15million equity he awarded because of the work she did setting up the Rendezvous Sports World Consortium that owns the Kochi team.
Whether she did earn it or not, (and $15 million seems a really good fee for a bit of freelance work), it was clearly a foolhardy thing to do considering that Sunanda Pushkar is a) beautiful and single, b) has been his escort to social functions for a while now, c) he himself has referred to her as his fiancée. Oh, and d) the IPL is run by Lalit Modi who Tharoor has managed to piss off not too long ago. And e), f) and g) Tharoor has made so many enemies in his 11 months in government that he simply should have known better.
Come on Mr Tharoor – a precocious five year old could tell you that Politics is a Dirty Business, and Indian politics as dirty as it gets. You yourself must know how many enemies you made on your road to reform, and so you more than anyone, should have been hyper aware of the goldfish bowl you were living in. How could you do it? If the country is going to go in a tail spin when you make a Twitter remark about “going cattle class in solidarity with all our holy cows”, what on earth did you think would happen when you make your girlfriend richer by several million just by a wave of your cricket wand?
And yet again, it’s the ordinary people of India who will suffer because of this. The ordinary people who just need a decent leader to rise above the muck they’ve been getting for so long.
Photo: Flickr.com uscpublicdiplomacy
on May 1st, 2010 at 5:30 am
The spectacular rise of the emerging wealthy strata of Indian socety defies the conventional defenition of class formation. This group represents a new phenomenon which as yet cannot and/or will not identify itself within the role and maintence of India’s socety and nation state, but is instead, seeking international recognition in the globalized world at large. This new socio-economic strata does not have a basis in relations to other formalized groups in India, or an established history and consciousness in terms of deference and patronage with the rest of the country. These are not the people who grew out of India’s “Green Revolution” or launching of India’s first satellite in the 1960s, which signalled the advancement of what Gandhi hoped India could achieve in part after independence. This new group has no real leadership or set place in integrating its role and justification into India’s social fabric. To do so may take a few generations for their consolidation and place to be accepted beyond the acquisition of wealth and connections. When this new strata deveolps into a recognized class in terms of historical processes in participating as an integral part of India’s social and national future, can it be considered to contribute leadership hope.