Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Scarcity of national leaders in Indian Politics

After freedom struggle Indian politics conspicuously lacked the true national level leaders.

This has done considerable damage to our national psyche. The growth of regionalism can also be attributed to the fact that our polity could never allow pan-Indian thoughts to flourish. Election could never been won on the national issues, local issues always mattered the most. The local MP is always blamed for the non-development of the region. So there are lesser incentives for a leader to broaden his thinking.

Therefore the coalition politics was always inevitable.

Because of this, sometimes i feel, the nehru-gandhi regime was needed in India. It was the only factor which kept India away from nuances of coalition politics. Now when there are no popular national level Nehru-Gandhi family member in politics, India is in trouble.

At least there should have been a leader of Vajpayee's stature who could provide leadership to the small leaders. Even that kind of leaders are not on the political scene.

Therefore 'who after Manmohan Singh' remains a big question in Indian Politics.