| Published on 24-09-2007 In National | | Viewed 1542 times | | The Dravid-ian "Shelf Life" and how our politicians can learn from it |
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| Written by
Girish Nikam | 
When one of the greatest cricketers India and the world has ever seen, Rahul Dravid relinquished captaincy of the Indian team last week, one obvious thought struck the mind. Will his fellow-Kannadiga, and the Chief Minister of Karnataka, H.D.Kumaraswamy follow suit as dignifiedly and as uneventfully?
One may say cricket and politics are a different ball game, and indeed it is. Leadership however, be it in cricket or in politics is all about knowing when to quit. But that is one quality which is lacking in most people, as we have witnessed more often than not in all the fields. And oddly we have come to accept that leaders don't quit. That is why Dravid's relinquishment, came as such a shock and surprise to people, that they have just not stopped trying to find a conspiracy behind it.
Kumaraswamy on the other hand is facing a slightly different situation. Unlike Dravid he does not have the luxury of making that decision on his own. He is traumatized, caught between the moral and the political. If his everyday quotes on the issue through the last few months are put together, his dilemma will become more evident.
Here is a Chief Minister, who became one by accident and in the 20 months he got to head the state warmed up to his job and started liking it. And in the bargain he now finds it difficult to tear himself from it, with a conniving and diabolic father and party men adding to the confusion.
On the other hand, Dravid who got the job, 23 months back, also warmed up to his job pretty soon, but went through a roller coaster ride, and just when he was reaching the peak, he decided to quit. He spoke about a "shelf life" for an Indian cricket captain, which he feels is getting shorter and shorter. That is truly words of a thinking man, not someone who took a decision in a pique.
Now let us check out the other thinking man we have in our midst, former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Just when one thought that he has quietly submerged himself into the background and was fading away like a setting sun, he sends a missive to the BJP National Executive in Bhopal. Even his party saw his absence in the meeting, for some unknown health reasons, as the signal that he will not be active anymore. But that was not to be. In a short half page message laced with his trademark poetry, he declared that he would be back soon to "light the lamp again"!
Everyone knows that though his spirit may be willing, his body is in no position to take any serious physical activity. But that has not stopped the ailing octogenarian to hope that he could be back.
Dravid by any stretch of imagination has not lost the verve nor the energy to play, but has decided to be there and help the next generation to take over, and see a smooth changeover. That is leadership. Of course people may say that changeover was in any way happening with the likes of M.S.Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh ready to take on the mantle. But Dravid can take comfort from the 5th century BC Chinese Taoist Philosopher, who had said, "when the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally ".
Coming back to Kumaraswamy, he now carries the burden of a decision to be whether another Mayawati, who in the mid-nineties had reneged on a similar promise made to, coincidentally, the BJP or stand up against the huge pressures he is facing and leave upto his promise in "Dravid-ian" gentlemanliness. Politics and gentlemanliness may have become an oxymoron in these days, but Kumaraswamy has an opportunity to prove it wrong.
Leadership is not only about leading, but also about accommodation. And in a democracy it becomes so much more important. Now coming to Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh, this question comes uppermost in the mind. When he struck this deal with the United States, and later asserted that it was the best thing, which could have happened to India, and faced the kind of reactions, was he accommodative? Dr.Singh has faced many a challenges in his 16-year political life, but he was always lead by others, unlike in the last three and half years when the buck stops at his desk.
And in the last month or so, since the India-US nuclear deal controversy, he is increasingly being seen as un-accommodative. And that is not a great sign of being a good leader.
Look at the other leader in the news nowadays, the CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat. The Manmohan Singh-Karat battle has exposed the chinks in both their armours. While Dr.Singh is being seen as un-accommodative, Karat is seen as highly dogmatic and worse, as pushing his own agenda, and being equally un-accommodative. This has left members of both the Congress and the CPI (M) wringing their hands in distress. Instead of taking their respective parties' along, both are seen to be on their own trip.
On the other hand what did the other leader who is in the news nowadays, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi, do. After making that highly distasteful and provocative statement about the drinking habits of Lord Ram, as apparently portrayed by Sage Valmiki, he made a clever u-turn about the Sethusamudram project. When he found/realised that his statements had resulted in a dangerous situation, he backed out, saying that his party was never dogmatic about the alignment of the project, and if it could be re-aligned to avoid the Ram setu/adam's bridge, he had no objections. One may call this u-turn as a clever strategy, but it also displays character of the man, as he knew when he should back off. Just like Dravid who knew when to relinquish.
Finally it is the concept of "shelf life", which Dravid enunciated that is the key to leadership. Be it a controversy which a leader has generated, like Karunanidhi did, or opposition or support to a controversial bi-lateral deal, or the dilemma facing the Karnataka Chief Minister, it is the people's perceptions of the "shelf life" to all that, and how the leaders understand it, which will make or break a leader. Dravid will always be seen as a man who knew his shelf life as a captain, especially now that his successor seems to be taking India to greater heights of cricketing glory. |
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