Author: shekhar

Leadership =Courage =The ability of an individual to get out there and stake everything on what he/she truly believes in. The fundamental idea of democracy has a flaw though. It assumes all decisions are of the collective, that nothing major will get decided unless there is a majority in the parliament. And those of us that have watched how the parliament works (on TV), it is a wonder that any decision takes place ! If I were to direct a film based in the principle of consensus, I would not be able to take a single shot in the whole day. So when we say we lack a great leader, are we not then burdening that leader with the collective principles of democracy ?
That has long been the argument of the Armed Forces and the Bureaucracy in India. “Those bickering fools in the parliament are just a bunch of dithering monkeys, and we are the ones that really running/defending the country inspite of them”. It is an argument that is difficult to refute if you have spent two confrontational days in the parliament. Remember the swell of public sentiment that once wanted Sam Manickshaw to take over the reigns of the country ?
The current political crisis in India leaves me in no doubt that as we have no strong leader, the collective is bringing the decision making process down. Not in ‘the best interests of our nation’, (the mantra they keep repeating everyday), but completely in their own selfish interest.
A leader needs to be bold, passionate. Needs to carry the the parliament with his/her beliefs. Needs the respect of even the opposition. And needs to place the needs of the country above both, the self and the party interests. We have not had one like that since Nehru. That’s just one in almost 60 years. No wonder we are a mess. Can India afford democracy as we know it in a modern and Global world ? Are we going to go on dithering like this or change the system.
To a system where minister’s are NOT elected politicians (who trusts that process in any case ?), but appoint the best proffesionals in the field to lead. So why not have head of Infosys as the minister of IT ? Or our best Military tacticians as the Defence Minister. Allow such highly skilled professional to lead the executive decisions, and to leave the Parliament to discuss, argue, fight over issues of over-all policy.
I for one applaud Manmohan Singh’s decision to go ahead with the Nuclear Treaty and stake everything on it. It’s what he believes in.

Like when the God’s created Sri Lanka they must have been so jealous of their own abundance that they created a war over it’s ownership, and that is the war that is being reflected in Sri Lanka and tearing the country apart. But it is impossible to go there, as I did last week, without just letting out a deep breath at the sheer beauty of the place and become one with nature. How often do we feel that urgent need to let go of the individual self ? Sri Lanka will do that you.
Most people bemoaned the lack of development. The lack of tourists. And though I completely understood, I thought of what we have done to our environment in India ( has anyone been to Goa recently ?) and the question that streaks to my mind is ‘what price development ?’. Is development something that lives as a deep desire within ourselves, or do we become slaves to development because someone has created a false aspiration for us, to profit from it themselves ? Just look at the city of Mumbai and ask whether it is worth putting your life’s savings into a matchbox that you call a house, surrounded by the greatest filth and pollution that a city can generate. Why ? because you are told that ultimately someone else will be willing to similarly sacrifice their life at a higher cost. We have become slaves to the God of ‘capital growth’ to whom we sacrifice the quality of our lives. We have become slaves to ‘ownership’.
Despite a war that has lasted 25 years, despite very little industrial growth and stagnation, Sri Lanka still has one of the highest per capita incomes in our region. Is there a lesson here that we are not learning ?

One day I was switched on the TV and watched Aaj Tak, a channel I have respected in the past and given serious exploratory interviews. To my horror the reportage on the Arushi murder case felt like the most C grade exploitative Hindi Movie, or worse a cheap TV Soap. Replete with brutally inter-cut shots of the poor girl and her parents with a song from Tare Zameen Par called “Tujhe Sab kuch Pata hai Maa”. I wrote off Aaj Tak as a serious news channel. Last night i saw Star News do something just as bad on the same issue, so do I write off Star News too ?
Here is my issue then. When I direct a film and if there is criticism I take a direct hit personally. An editor of a newspaper (in better times) would take personal responsibility for the content of the paper and it’s views. But who is responsible for the quality on a news channel ? I personally know the owners and promoters, and have known them to be intelligent and in-depth thinkers. They were the ones that used to eloquently talk of the bad taste in Hindi Cinema and denigrate it when I first came to be part of it. And this is not just the news channels, some of our best loved and revered morning newspapers have turned into gossip broadsheets.
Question is, does becoming a corporate body put a barrier between you and questions of personal taste ? Does being a corporate body suddenly switch your personal responsibility from value in quality to valuation on the stock market ? I completely understand the idea of economic growth, and market capitalization. Hey ! you put enough sex on the third page, enough skimpily clad sexy girls on TV and you will make money in any case – but turning a murder (and perhaps attempted rape) of a 14 year old girl into pulp fiction is so much worse.
Incidentally anyone remember or anyone in the media interested anymore in the Nithari murders, when over 20 bodies of children were found with their heads cut off. That also happened in NOIDA, not far from where little Arushi was murdered.