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New
Delhi, 29 June 2002
Our
recent articles on President to be Dr APJ Kalam Azad have elicited a
great deal of feedback and debate. In spite of his apparent lack of
political experience to be the President, most feedback has
expressed great faith in his leadership qualities, patriotism and
passion for making India one of the great nations of the world. The
President of India is a rubber stamp leader but he can be a guiding
example to the body politic and the citizens at large to strive to
make India great. In the five years that he enjoys at Rashtrapati
Bhavan, he can be instrumental to instill confidence, cooperation
and inspire greater efforts.
Enlightened
Leadership is the key to success in today's information and
management age and India needs it badly. Leadership includes
knowledge of modern management techniques. It is a sad fact that
Indian Leaders are intelligent (a European survey had indicated that
the British are the least intelligent), but our geriatric leaders
and criminal politicians may not have it in them, and it is not
their fault. We elected them!
When
Rajiv died India's Congress dug up Narasimha Rao, later I K Gujral
and Deve Gowda came to power as compromises not Leaders. Vajpayee
may have passed his day but he is a father figure and the NDA needs
him. So it is with Sonia Gandhi, though she has shown glimpses of
Leadership.
Mohan
Guruswamy has been Adviser to the Finance Minister and is a Harvard
graduate. He obviously has inside knowledge and has researched the
issues he writes about. However, some of our readers literally
ordered us to remove Mohan's article from our site. Others gave us
inputs on Kalam's non-political life and some showered bouquets on
us for the views expressed, and still others analysed what he
achieved as the head of DRDO.
However
IDC must report we Asians thanks to Osama bin Laden's fanatic and
sadistic designs and Leadership have been shot in the foot. All that
he has done for Al Queda needed LEADERSHIP and management and
secrecy and he achieved it.
Talking
of leadership reminds us of a story told about late Rear Admiral St
John Cameron, the finest Commanding Officer that INS MYSORE had. The
Indian Navy had seen a rise in STD cases on ships returning from
foreign cruises. So when the ship with 1400 officers and sailors
sailed for East Africa he gave a five minute speech from a stand on
the quarterdeck. “You are the finest ship's company I have had the
honour to command and let us all enjoy the foreign cruise and come
back with honour. I know none of you will do anything wrong, but my
advice is whenever you go ashore carry your identity card and also
pick up a condom kept all over the ship and carry it. I know both
will not be required, but you never know when you may have to show
one and use the other. Please do listen to your Captain.” INS
MYSORE set the record and did not have a single case of VD. That was
a display of blunt Leadership which many Anglo Indians gave directly
and on the playing field and today the Indian Navy is regarded well
for the traditions they left behind.
What
also is interests us in various inputs from viewers from all over
including Pakistan, are comments on the LCA, Arjun MBT, Missile and
ATV projects of DRDO, which we have analysed in the past along with
the other projects from time to time. We have stated how much was
achieved in the sonar and missile and nuclear field and Kalam gets
congratulated for these achievements. One of our viewers has sent us
a piece which explains why INDIA LACKS LEADERSHIP and since we have
said so time and again we reiterate that even in Defence India lacks
Leadership.
Despite
being one of the most intelligent races in the world we are lagging
behind and nothing from our Electricity Policy for power, which is a
prerequisite for progress or our education policy or economic
thinking has any Leadership and what worries IDC is that we have
three fine Chiefs of the three Services but no CHIEF in charge. No
wonder the Defence Secretary acts as the CDS or CHIEF to coordinate
matters, a task that he is ill qualified to do.
Mr
Yogendra Narian is handing over to Mr Subhir Datta who was
Additional Secretary and then Secretary Defence Production, so at
least he brings continuity. But even the capable Yogendra Narian
could not complete the reorganisation of the MOD, which he set out
to do. All he will be remembered for is his delegation of powers.
Even
abroad there is no single DEFENCE ADVISER in our Missions but
separate Army, Navy and Air Force Attaches and each one operates
independently. Please take our word for this -- most times one does
not know what the other is doing and seniorities also play up. The
Ambassadors love this as they can play one against the other. It all
starts in New Delhi where each Chief pretends he cooperates but he
has to guard his own turf. The blame lies in lack of Leadership. We
post below an interesting input.
IDC
commends all thinking people who care for India's security to worry
about this aspect in the Armed Forces and correct it or else in war
we will be in trouble and War is a possibility after the
monsoons. In Pakistan we may not like Musharraf but at least he has
shown LEADERSHIP.
Feedback
Input From A Viewer
Subject:
kalam ka kamala
Comments:
Thanks a lot IDC.
Thanks
a lot Mr. Guru Swamy for your clarification and explanation..
I
support most of your views. But it is the discussion about Kalam.
But let me express my views about few of your comments.
Your
comment: He is not a nuclear scientist, as his presidential rival
believes. He is not even a scientist as is commonly believed. He is
an engineer turned administrator, which is as different as apples
and oranges are.
Good
administrators, that's what our country really needs. Till now after
independence we never had good administrators. All the leaders so
far, they tried hard to be in power. Leaders with absolute majority
in parliament tried to be in power for the next term, and the
leaders without majority for their current terms. They never cared
about the country. That's where our country lost to China.
-
China
has corruption. India has corruption..
-
China
has large population. India also has large population.
-
China
is a big country with plenty of resources. So is India.
Then
why is our country is not treated as a power like CHINA.
It
is just because we lack good leaders. Even Musharraff is a good
leader from Pakistanis’ perspective. He is an intelligent guy, who
doesn't want to lose battle with India and not conceding anything to
India.
That’s
where we lost to China and Pakistan. I am sure that Vajpayeeji is a
great leader. But most of his office time he will be spending
reconciling his NDA partners and trying to stay in power.
According
to you, the world is full of self-made men and women. In fact we are
all self-made people for we are what we made of our choices, options
and opportunities, and are as much a consequence of our
temperaments, habits, attitudes and discipline.
That's
true.
And
what about Presidents? You only said that the quality of presidents
is diminishing. That's where we need good administrators. That's
where Mr. Kalam scores points. He doesn't have degrees like Mr.
Narayanan. But he also came up in his life from a poor background.
May be seniority rule brought him up to heights. But with out talent
no one can stay in such high and important position for such a long
time.
Yes
he is not a missile scientist, but he is the person who pooled all
the young guns and directed them in the correct direction.
Even
in western countries who have no funds crunch, they are also lagging
behind their schedules in their efforts to build new weapon systems.
Best examples are Europe's EUROFIGHTER and EUROCOPTER and America's
National Missile Defence System and F-18 project. Those projects are
very well funded and a large number of scientists are working on
them, still they are behind schedule.
Hence
is it really not fair to say that Kalam's missile program and DRDO's
other programs are lagging behind. Their LCA is ‘Late Combat
Aircraft’. Let me tell you one thing. Building any advanced
fighter in the world takes a minimum of 15 years. It doesn’t mean
that, by the time it comes out it is lagging 15 years behind in
technology. While designing they design to cover this lag. So same
with LCA. The flow of cash into this project is also not constant.
So how can you expect the project to be completed on time.
If
we take the missile program, designing a missile (Agni 1) in 8
months for a country like us is really a great thing. We got
Prithvi's, and Agni's from DRDO. Rest of the things are going to
make it in another two or three years, though behind schedule. See
sir, we don't have proper infrastructure and Indigenous research
field is neglected by our leaders in the first three decades.
For every thing we have bureaucracy problems. Take the case of AJT.
Still we are not able to short list the right kind of plane just
because of our great leaders. Every consortium catches one leader
and put the pressure on our government. Meanwhile our government
changes and again the new government takes more time to decide.
That's what’s happening in buying weapon systems. They are already
built and we are facing problems in selecting them. So lets think
about building a system on our own. First they have to get proper
funding, they should have infrastructure, so it will take time. For
sure Kalam is not responsible for ATV's delay. Government gave it
the status "1" only two years back. It means that proper
funding is available only from two years.
So
if we take your main complaint that "after all these years
there is still not very much claw to the paw!"
My
reasons are:
-
In
its means DRDO performed very well in a lot of projects. (eg:
PRITHVI and AGNI)
-
There
are some delays in few projects because of the decision-making
delays by the government or lack of funds. Lack of funds means
putting that project in second or third grade of importance.
-
Lack
of proper infrastructure.
-
Indian
parents are not ready to make their children defence scientists
as those positions are not lucrative.
-
Most
of the talented Indians are going abroad.
Mr.
Kalam has joined or being promoted in the department in the rank of
scientist.. so obviously he will be called a scientist and he has
done a very great job. He encouraged youngsters to become
scientists. Even after his retirement he joined as a professor and
trying to encourage students to come in this way.
In
present conditions, I think he is the best person who can handle the
post very well.. If his few poems are published in RSS weekly
doesn't mean that he is a RSS guy. ( RSS guy means that guy is a bad
person.. RSS is a great organization.. but that's a different
topic.)
We
can see the efforts of Mr. Kalam in ‘whatever claw we got in our
paw’.
Name:
Deepak Khaderabad
Address:
60, gristmill road, randoplh, NJ, 07869, USA
Telephone:
201-294-3151
EMail:
misterdeepak@yahoo.com
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