Leadership is not about kindling baser human instincts, leadership is about having the courage to call them out and spur people to elevated ways and thinking. Leadership is about telling societies what’s wrong with them, not about swimming along with wrong
Mahatma Gandhi paid with his life fighting bigotry, prejudice and hatred, but fight he did through his life, waging against the tide very often and setting examples. We have sadly not only shunned the example but also begun to pride ourselves in mocking his message
Dog-whistling prejudice and hatred, gaslighting violence, spurring social dissonance and fracture can fetch you votes and power, but we know how such “popular” and “powerful” entities ended and how they are remembered.
“The BJP is wise to Nitish’s low strike-rate record and will most likely work to trip its ally’s Assembly numbers even as it keeps the pretence of being part of the Nitish-led NDA.
Paswan’s LJP is not the only move the BJP has made to that end.”
“The creation, overnight, of a third alliance between Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP and Mayawati’s BSP, and the sudden withdrawal of Mukesh Mallah’s VIP, a not insignificant vote-splitter, from the RJD gathbandhan, are clearly BJP pawn-play to corner Nitish on the Bihar chessboard.”
“We are living the funereal carnival of our dispossession. And we probably do not know. Successor generations might turn to ask: What were you applauding?”