By Girish Nikam
It is hard times all over. The newspapers and TV is full of bad news. Of course the only good news amid all this gloom and misery is the thrashing India gave to Australia, winning by the largest margin ever in Mohali. But that is little consolation for the strife and conflict which is threatening to tear into the entire idea of India.

From the Muslim-locals ethnic divide in Assam in the north east, Kosi victims’ continuing misery in Bihar, Singur fiasco in West Bengal, continuing attacks against the Christians in neighbouring Orissa, Maoists free reign in Chattisgarh, North Indians being attacked by the goons of Raj Thackeray in Maharashtra and the violent reaction to his arrest, saffronisation of Karnataka and the consequent fear among the minorities there, and the raised tempo on the Sri Lankan tamil issue by the Tamil Nadu parties threatening to open up old wounds.

And to top these all, the continuing threat of terrorism and the increasing isolation of the Muslims and their profiling. And of course to further rub salt into the wounds of the nation, is the economic distress, causing the nearly four crore Indians who are part of the modern financial system to take the worst hit on their savings, with shrinking mutual funds deposits and sinking stocks. And the poor who have no stakes in this, becoming poorer.

Napoleon Bonaparte the redoubtable French General and later Emperor, talking of leaders, had said, “A leader is a dealer in hope”. Do we have such “dealers” in our amidst today who provides hope in this atmosphere of doom?

It took much prodding and pushing before Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh came out with a statement on the financial crisis in the parliament. But can anyone after reading that statement headlined in every newspaper and TV channels, provide hope? Does it provide the millions of savings bank account holders and investors and those facing threats of job cuts, the soothing balm they need to keep their chins up?

One newspaper editor in his front page piece exhorting the Prime Minister to come out and speak to the nation rather ironically pointed out, if Dr.Singh and his team of Finance Minister and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, were not holding their present jobs, they would have been much sought after to provide solutions to the global financial crisis, by even the western economies. If they are such geniuses, which many people in this country believed them to be till recently, where have they gone wrong? Why have they have not been able to instill confidence in the people, to go out and do their diwali shopping as they usually did?

Now coming to the atmosphere of strife prevailing in this country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, literally, have our leaders provided any comfort? Why is it that suddenly we find that the nation is drifting and not being lead? A perceptive American thinker once said, “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency”.

But what we have seen in these last several months, as our Prime Minister concentrated all his energies on getting his pet nuclear deal through even alienating one of his most trusted allies, the left parties, was every problem was heading into the emergency status. Be it the economy, be it Kashmir, be it the minority bashing, or be it terrorism.

No wonder the nation suddenly finds itself in an emergency ward, with inadequate facilities to treat the patient, and doctors bewildered with the patient’s problem.

It is amazing that when all this is happening, we find total silence in the top echelons of the Government.

Except for the sanitized and repetitive “fundamentals are strong” statement, Prime Minister Dr.Singh has failed to revive hopes. On the other hand look at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Wall Street Journal went ga ga about Brown saying, “Prime Minister Gordon Brown, given up in Britain as political flotsam just weeks ago, has emerged from the global financial crisis as a leader whose ideas are influencing policy from Europe to Washington”. He is even being dubbed as an elder statesman who may have found a way out of the financial crisis, which other nations including US and France are following.

But none of those accolades which Brown is getting, remember he also was the Chancellor of the Exchequer(Finance Minister) like Dr.Singh before he became Prime Minister, is coming our Prime Minister’s way. The only thing we hear is about how our regulators have done a grand job and how we are not really influenced by the global crisis, as we did not open up our economy. And credit for this certainly does not go to the Prime Minister, as left to himself he would have, but luckily for over four years he was kept under leash by the leftists.

Now coming to the other big threat of terrorism and hindu fundamentalism which has succesfully isolated the minorities. Has Dr.Singh come out with any statement which can soothe the terrorised minds of the minorities and put the fear of god in the minds of the hindu fundamentalists? In fact except for his once again inane statements in the recent National Integration council, he has hardly spoken out sharply on this issue.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the leader Dr.Singh is most influenced by apparently, had once said, “A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his actions”. But what we have been seeing with Dr.Singh is that he keeps thinking of the reasons for his actions so much, that no action has been forthcoming. How else can we explain him continuing to have someone as a Home Minister, who has failed miserably by all standards.

This crisis of leadership is not just confined to the ruling party or the Government. Opposition parties also hardly provides much hope. The Prime Minister-in-waiting has also hardly shown the statesmanship which one expets in this hour of crisis. He should learn from Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State, and a staunch Republican, who came out in support of the Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, the other day. The courage he displayed while defending Obama, is something Advani can take a leaf out of, as his ideological brethren run amock dividing the country. Referring to the Republican refrain that Obama was a muslim, implying he cant be trusted, Powell said, “He is not a Muslim, he is a Christian. But the really right answer is ‘what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country’”. And saying that he extended support to Obama’s candidature.

That is sterling display of statesmanship. We havent heard any of our leaders, be it Dr.Singh or Advani displaying such courage or clarity, on any issue, live alone on the religious divide. No wonder we are going through such hard times. Our leaders should realise, as one American Corporate leader once said, “One of the hardest tasks of leadership is understanding that you are not what you are, but what you are perceived to be by others”.

And the perception today about our leaders is that by and large they have failed to lead.