What do you expect in a political party?

Transparency, Accountability, Humility, Democracy, Respect for each other, Knowledge, Wisdom, Solutions?…Well, there are far too many qualities that we expect out of a political party, but trying to see everything in one may be being foolhardy.

It is a no brainer that the current political parties in India are a consortium of the good, the bad and the ugly with the latter taking an active role and deciding the fate of billions. It has almost become a standing rule that every party in India has to have criminals in their party.

Criminalisation of Politics is THE buzz word, in Indian politics these days. Apparently, the 14^th Lok Sabha will see more criminals than ever before.

During these times, citizens like you and me look for HOPE somewhere, dreaming of a resurgent India where Indian politicians are respected all around the world. Well, some say it is a distant reality, some think it is a childish joke and some call the height of optimism.

I couldn’t have agreed more until a few days ago, when one of my friends told me about a particular party that was working at the grass root levels. I decided to delve more into what was seemingly a utopian concept initially but after doing my bit of research, I changed my mind.

As a result, I wrote my first article on this political party which is envisioning to change the complete electoral image of the country.

The party in contention is Lok Satta which is led by one of the most able and admirable administrators of our time – Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, a Physician turned Civil Servant turned Social Activist turned Politician.

Lok Satta promises Transparency, Accountability, Humility, Democracy, Respect for each other, Knowledge, Wisdom, Solutions and much more – all that you would dream of an ideal political party.

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan seems to preach and practice all of that. What started as a concept in 1996, has transpired into a political storm, a movement of sorts in Andhra Pradesh with the party spreading its wings to neighboring Maharashtra and Karnataka and with tens of thousands of people supporting him, his ideals and his way of tackling issues.

Finally, there seems to be a glimmer of HOPE in India. More of Lok Satta, Dr. JP, his vision, strategies etc in my next article.

Change in Indian Politics is definitely on its way…

Image Credit:Wikimedia

Popularity: 29%

My grandmother used to say that in her times, when they made a charitable contribution, the right hand didn’t know what the left one did. I understood it then to mean that they were magnanimous enough that they didn’t count the value of the giving, for the thing that mattered was the thought. Little did I realize (many years on) that there was more to it than meets the eye – the real significance of what she really meant was highlighting a specific human quality: humility, that showed through even the giving aspect of life.

These days it is seen as important for one to highlight one’s contributions in a competitive workspace – in avenues like the performance reviews, there is a specific opportunity for the individual (by way of what’s referred to as self appraisals) to highlight one’s own contribution. The highlighting of performance I am referring to is beyond this – something that I have come to understand in various high-performance coaching and mentoring classes that I was recently exposed to. Delving into leading high-performing teams, the instructors encourage the leadership to actually start pushing the teams to exhibit the “be in your face” attitude to visibility.

This is being spoken of as the mantra for being aggressive at work and thereby successful at being visible. As with any quality, anything that is overdone becomes its own detriment. It’s a thin line to tread between being humble about one’s contributions versus a public display of one’s achievements. Where exactly do we draw this line?

I don’t have the specific answers or possess the unique judgmental ability to distinguish a specific case that borders on either side of this. But I do know one thing – as with other such erstwhile adages, there cannot be a fire without the spark. There’s got to be a reason why humility was favored all along. To me, this is a non-negotiable aspect that I am not willing to change. For, in my view, humility is not black and white, as in you cannot practice it in certain areas like charity or social life and ignore it at work. Also, I believe it is ingrained in one’s upbringing and defines the level of self-confidence to a certain extent.

This is a controversial topic for sure, and I am sure there will be equal arguments to both sides of the story. Maybe I am prejudiced about pride after all!

Image Credit: Ben Sutherland

Popularity: 12%