LK Advani’s resignation is a betrayal of our India dream
By Shashi Shekhar on June 11, 2013
A riveting episode in the Mahabharata is a conversation between Yudhishtra and Bhishma at the culmination of the Rajasuya sacrifice by Yudhishtra. On the last day of the Rajasuya, as Yudhishtra proceeded to offer holy water to honour the Kings in attendance at the Rajasuya, he was faced with the moral dilemma over which King to offer respects first.
Bhishma settled that moral dilemma for Yudhishtra by saying that Krishna ought to be offered respects first. Upon hearing this, Shishupala raises an objection by citing a long list of names starting with Bhishma himself being the seniormost in the hall while going on to insult Krishna. Shishupala mocks Krishna over his birth in a lesser clan and also over the fact that Krishna was not even a King.
While Yudhishtra tries to reason with Shishupala, Bhishma speaks up to say:
We have not honoured Krishna out of caprice, nor have we honoured Krishna out of our personal relationship to him. We have honoured him out of his merit. There is none here we have not taken into consideration. Passing over many who are older, learned and accomplished, we have considered Krishna to be worthy of being honoured first on account of his merit.
Merit over age, family and station is a Hindu ethic as old as the Mahabharat, if not older. Somewhere, the flagbearer of Hindu Identity Consciousness lost that message as he drifts into his winter years.
The events of the last 24 hours are a reminder of why the Mission for 272 has to be about us and not about them. In the past 24 hours, we have been fed multiple sides of stories and insider accounts of endless backroom intrigue. If the sorry spectacle of a clever patriarch claiming hurt was not enough we had leaks attributed to family members with petty claims aimed at taking cheap shots at Narendra Modi. One insider account speaks of endless intrigue resulting from family members unreconciled to the patriarch’s unfulfilled ambition. Another speaks of stage-managed outrage aimed at exploiting recent slights and faultlines. In all, this backroom intrigue makes one thing clear — if this was about genuine detachment, then the letter of resignation would not have stopped with so called party posts, it would have extended to the Lok Sabhaseat as well.
The reality is that the tallest leader has allowed his human failings to dwarf himself so much that he is now reduced to a petty factional figure who has ended up providing political succour and entertainment to the same people who have mocked him for decades.
Debate: Should LK Advani‘s resignation be accepted?
All of this backroom intrigue, more than anything else, is a firm reminder why the Mission for 272 is so important.
Yesterday, a question was posed on Twitter on why the number 272 and what is so wildly important about it. It would be pertinent to point out the importance of a ‘Wildly Important Goal’ by citing Strategy Execution Guru Franklin Covey:
“The ‘Wildly Important Goal’ (WIG) is the one goal that has to be achieved, or nothing else you achieve really matters much.”
Let us be clear that a tally of 140 or 160 or even 180 gets you nothing but more backroom intrigue. Any number below 272 gets you factional leaders, greedy coalition partners and endless bickering over portfolios, slights and egoes. It is only when you cross the 272 mark that these distractions begin to pale over the mission ahead. Hence the significance of the number 272. It is the one goal that has to be achieved thus making it “wildly important”. Achieving any number less than 272 matters little for it will only mean more backroom intrigue, more factional politics, more political uncertainty and status quo. Any number less than 272 means messy compromises in Parliament that make it more and more difficult to achieve the kind of reforms needed to realise your dreams, our dreams — the India Dream.
Writing for the Fast Company Magazine, Sean Covey and others frame the importance of the “Wildly Important Goal” very well:
Whether it’s a military conflict, or the war on hunger, cancer, or poverty, there’s a relationship between battles and wars. The only reason you fight a battle is to win the war.Focusing on one wildly important goal is like punching one finger through a sheet of paper — all your strength goes into making that hole.if you want high-focus, high-performance team members, they must have something wildly important to focus on.
Whether Advani takes back his resignation or whether some backroom conversation took place or not is frankly irrelevant and immaterial. The slipping Rupee, the stalled reforms, the rising inflation and the swelling unemployment across India’s youth all are leading indicators of an India Dream in peril, perhaps fast turning into a nightmare. What remains of Advani’s legacy ought to be of no concern to us. Left to themselves, politicians in Delhi will allow themselves to be consumed by endless Delhi intrigue.
Enough with this backroom political intrigue. This is about our future, our children’s future, our India Dream.
The Mission for 272 is our best chance to get a rank outsider like Narendra Modi to challenge the status quo in Delhi. This mission will not be a reality unless the swelling ranks of Narendra Modi’s youthful supporters have their passions and energies firmly focused on that one ‘Wild Important Goal’ of getting past that magic number of 272.