By Priyanka Rajput
World leaders are falling short of work that speaks highly of their leadership abilities pointing to a leadership crisis in the world.
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n October 10, 2024, former president of the United States Barack Obama made an impassioned speech to exhort fellow Americans to vote for his Democratic Party candidate Ms Kamala Harris in the presidential election on November 5 this year.
“It’s not just about policies that are found on the ballot. It is about values, and it is about character1,” he said as loudly and as emphatically as he could from the podium of a rally in Pennsylvania state.
He mentioned supporting a candidate with a strong character; however, politicians of character are increasingly becoming a rare occurrence the world over. Consider Vice-President Harris whose conduct so far does not exhibit a strong character that is defined by its classical definition.
More Advertising Than Etiquette
Ms Harris enjoying beer2 and dancing3 on television shows does not portray a person with a strong character. In one of her viral shorts, she is elated to share what her favourite cuss word4 is. Being media savvy and projecting oneself as a dynamic leader through television could be a desirable trait in a candidate but Ms Harris’s light-hearted moments on flippant talk shows erode the degree of seriousness that would be expected of a candidate aspiring for the so-called top job in the world.
An example of how such character fails a nation and its people has been set during the premiership of Mr Boris Johnson5 in the UK. Johnson wanted to cling on to his post but had to resign after an unrelenting outcry made it impossible for him to continue because he was found guilty in the Partygate scandal. He and his ministers partied at his official residence despite COVID-19 restrictions in place.
Ms Harris’s rival and a former US President Donald Trump has already demonstrated that he lacks not only the character needed to be president but also to uphold democracy, yet he is a dominant presidential candidate.
More Populism Than Extraversion
State heads nowadays are built using public relations, propaganda and spin doctors. Popularity around a leader thus generated does not guarantee a strong moral character but a presentation of an attractive figure that appears good on the outside and hollow inside. Assertive and honest leaders exhibit greater tendency to respond to tough questions by the media and maintain a high level of transparency so that information can be cross-checked with all available standards. In this regard, late Professor Howard Elcock is worth quoting from his book Political Leadership:
“Indeed, nowadays, political leaders seem to be concerned with their political survival above all else. They therefore become preoccupied with the increasing range of techniques, such as opinion polling, focus groups, and media manipulation that are now available to help them do so. As a result, politics has become corrupted by the activities of ‘spin doctors’ working either to ensure the survival of the incumbent leaders or to secure their replacement by their opponents.”
More Fixation Than Morality
No matter how lightly America took the issue of President Joe Biden’s insistence to run for a second term despite several public displays of his failing cognitive abilities, the truth is that cognitive impairment and failing health are reasons enough to relinquish office gracefully, and in this context, it is the head of a country who is deciding the fate of all citizens with a mind that is not fully capable of sound decision-making6.
In the 2024 presidential election, Ms Harris began her campaign by projecting herself as a dynamic attorney who brought about significant changes to her profession, but she has been unable to give her post of vice-president a turn around. It could have put her in good stead considering her unsuccessful run in the 2020 presidential Primary where she could not deftly hold on to her positions on crucial issues.
Despite her many shortcomings, she is vying to be the next president without facing a Primary and without knowing whether citizens are in favour of her candidacy. One of the reasons why Ms Harris is running for office is because Mr Biden refused to relent — allowing her to take over a readymade campaign and in a way signalling that Mr Biden had already decided that Ms Harris would replace him. Such leadership does not speak of a strong character.
“Everyday a president has to handle politically charged problems that have no simple solution. In this Ms Harris’s weakness for bad ideas and political gimmicks threatens to be a liability,” writes The Economist newspaper.
In Pope Francis’s words America has no choice but to choose the lesser devil of the two, primarily because the election system in place was not adhered to in totality, leading to an indecisive electorate. The other reason why such a situation arose is: the Democratic Party failed to support and project able candidates who could take Mr Biden’s place in time and the Republican Party chose to overlook the dissenting voices against Mr Trump.
More Obscurantism Than Agreeableness
India is no different when it comes to cultivating popular political figures like Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to cable .co.uk India ranked seventh in the lowest average cost of 1GB of mobile data in 2023. Cheap data helps in dissemination of propaganda to build a positive image of a leader.
Populist leaders fail to deliver on the policy front as well. Under Mr Modi’s governance more than 56% of the population demands free food from the government7. There is also greater dependence of citizens on government for medical care as it pushes for private entities. The cost of granting several doles and subsidies to the population by a government is met by increasing the government’s revenue through higher taxes. It is best explained by Tamil Nadu businessman D Srinivasan’s cream-bun quip: “While there is no GST on bun, and 5% on cream, if you put cream and bun together the GST becomes 18%”.
It speaks about the clever and covert policies that a popular government resorts to, to remain in power. The Central Board of Direct Taxes data8 says net direct tax collections have increased by 160.52% in financial year 2022-23. It surged to 182% in 2023-24 in the 10-year-period of the Modi-led BJP government, according to the Times Series Data released by the Income Tax Department9. While corporate tax collections more than doubled during this 10-year period, personal income tax collections rose four times.
The NGO Oxfam India’s ‘Survival of the Richest: The India Story report 2023’, underlines that it is the poor who are the main source of revenue for the government.
“A little less than two-third of the total GST (an indirect tax) is coming from the bottom 50%, as per estimates one-third from middle 40% and only 3-4% from the top 10%.” “The bottom 50% of the population at an all-India level pays six times more on indirect taxation as a percentage of income compared to top 10%,” says the report.
Such findings invite FERA violation charges against NGOs in India and force them to shut10. On the other hand, the government’s own sources of revenue generation like power, Doordarshan and BSNL have lost their market value.
“(Anthony) Downs tells us that ‘because the government wishes to maximise political support, it carries out those acts of spending which gain the most votes, by means of those acts of financing which lose the fewest votes’. Politicians therefore sanction the provision of more public services and levy ever higher taxes to pay for them, especially when powerful lobbies press for more services, because these lobbies act as intermediaries providing a ready means for governments to determine what the people want,” writes Professor Elcock.
It is the voters who need to decide whether they want jobs and self-dependence or free housing, power, ration and temples in return for higher taxes.
To make matters worse, Indian leadership has no data on issues as sensitive as deaths due to lack of oxygen during COVID-1911 or about the claims of doubling of farmers’ income. A leadership devoid of data prevents accusations of misadministration because there is no counter to the claims it makes in the absence of data.
More Opaqueness Than Welfarism
Another example of lack of data is the election spending on the 2024 general elections in India. The election commission’s website does not mention expenditure incurred by the ruling BJP while listing that of other parties. It is estimated that the 2024 general election was not just the costliest in the history of India but in the world at an incredible ₹1.35 lakh crore i.e. more than one trillion rupees (13,50,00,00,00,000)12.
India’s real GDP for 2022-23, according to Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, stood at ₹160.71 lakh crore. The amount that is estimated to have been spent on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls is as much as the net direct tax collections (provisional) for Financial Year 2023-24 at ₹1.35 lakh crore, which is many times higher than the GSDP of states like Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh.
More Fascism Than Nationalism & Patriotism
Can a republic run by the rule of law have incidents like the death of former professor GN Saibaba13 after being falsely incarcerated or the death of Father Stan Swamy14 in prison? Both these arrests were arbitrary, their pleas for bail went unheard, and ironically, both were defenders of human rights.
“It bears the hallmark of a State seeking to silence a critical voice,” Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights has said.
In the US, the reversal of Roe v Wade is testament to how the US Supreme Court is vulnerable to manipulation by the president. These are instances of misuse of institutions and the research that won the 2024 Nobel for Economic Sciences tells us how “Societies with poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better”.
Populist leaders also practice hyper-nationalism, but when it comes to issues like Manipur, and communal tensions — they go unnoticed and unchecked.
In the case of Mr Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extreme levels of hyper nationalism have resulted in wars. The reason: it is a cover to continue in power. Mr Putin has already implemented a legislation that allows him to continue as president until 2036, which is a life-long-term, considering he is 72 years old now. Mr Netanyahu is also on the same course and is refusing to end the war in Gaza to safeguard his premiership. Having served 16 non-consecutive years as Prime Minister, Mr Netanyahu wants to prolong his tenure to dodge corruption charges against him.
“Their (Saddam Hussain of Iraq and Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia,) determination to act out their nationalistic fantasies have turned their countries into impoverished rogue states because of the evil deeds, including mass exterminations…”, writes professor Elcock in Political Leadership.
If leaders give in to geopolitical compulsions to support decisions like war and aggression, it demonstrates the lack of leadership to avert or find amicable solutions to radical problems.
The leaders of the present times have another trait in common which is oratorial skills to manipulate through speech - something very typical of German dictator Adolf Hitler. And, hence, quite aptly in democracies across the world such leaders have raised fears of imposition of dictatorship.
There are equal fears of changing the Constitution but if there is one amendment the Indian constitution desperately needs — it is to limit the tenure of its prime minister to two terms. Similarly, if the US Constitution needs an amendment, it is to impeach or dismiss the entire government in power, if there are legitimate reasons to show the president is unfit to lead the nation. That could be one way to nip tendencies of dictatorship, clip the wings of a corrupt politician, and avoid an ugly clash like the present one in the US.
“As long as the political system benefits the elites, the population cannot trust that promises of a reformed economic system will be kept. A new political system, which allows the population to replace leaders who do not keep their promises in free elections, would allow the economic system to be reformed. However, the ruling elites do not believe the population will compensate them for the loss of economic benefits once the new system is in place. This is known as the commitment problem; it is difficult to overcome and means that societies are trapped with extractive institutions, mass poverty and a rich elite,” the 2024 Nobel laureates in Economic Sciences Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A Robinson have found in their research.
More Merkelism than Hitlerism
In tangible form, German Chancellor Angela Merkel evinces those leadership qualities that a republic would desire15. If we compare Ms Harris to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ms Merkel will be perceived as a leader with strong character due to her no nonsense conduct in public. Like Ms Harris, she has no children of her own, but no one referred to her as ‘a childless cat woman’, a term that is not only derogatory but also telling of the petty politics candidates are indulging in, wherein Ms Harris would not mind saying “I know Donald Trump’s type” etc.
Ms Merkel has been a woman of action rather than words and her legacy speaks for itself. She stood for human values like dignity of life for immigrants, pushing the country to find alternatives to destructive technologies like nuclear energy, taking on Russian President Vladimir Putin by ensuring his biggest critic late Alexie Navalny survived a fatal poisoning attempt. These decisions and many others were pivotal in bringing Germany out from the shadows of Nazism and positioning it as a country that stood for human values. It is the kind of leadership that Ms Merkel demonstrated that the world is today bereft of.
A survey by global public opinion company YouGov found that 61 per cent of Germans agreed that the standards of the country have declined since Ms Merkel relinquished office.
In India, to improve the quality of leaders in public offices, it is not enough to vote. It is time that citizens question their leaders at public forums. The big questions to ask leaders are: ‘What will be done?’ and ‘How it will be done?’ When a leader proposes schemes like caste census, the participants at the event need to question the leader as to how the exercise would help him or her. If ‘X’ number of jobs are promised, the voter needs to question how they will be provided. Here, the middle class needs to play a proactive role by attending rallies and speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves due to their educational limitations and because of a partisan media that would be reluctant to question authority and expose the truth. Citizens hold the responsibility to demand closure of fake and propagandist news disseminators and oppose harassment of media establishments like NewsClick.
“We could get better candidates if we raise the respect that we have for our elected politicians. As long as our elections are characterised by negative ad campaigning against opponents, many good people will choose not to run. As long as members of the Congress have to vote their party line and not offer any compromising, the public will have poor picture of politicians,” American author Philip Kotler writes in his book Democracy in Decline.
Research has shown that personality traits of politicians provide the essence of what a candidate would do during his term in office and how it would be done16, the need is to find the true nature of a politician and reject the pompous ones. Research also says that personality traits of elected politicians are in congruence with those of the electorate, does that mean more people today believe in the values demonstrated by the present-day leaders? If not, unless the citizens question and cross-question their leaders at public forums rather than being yes-men of the leaders, little will change for the better.
By Priyanka Rajput
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