What is wrong with our mass leaders?

Yesterday, we saw the passing away of one more mass leader of Independent India. I mean Jyoti Basu. He ruled the state of West Bengal for 23 years at a stretch. What were his achievements during that period? There are many. He implemented the panchayat raj system in his state very well. There were no law and order problems even during 1992. But he also took West Bengal back by 23 years in terms of industrialization. He just did not try to figure out how to leverage the panchayat raj system for economic development. He just did not leverage the firm-grip he had on the state politics for 23 years to take the state forward.

Let us take Indira Gandhi, the other mass leader I can think of in Independent India. What were her achievements? Certainly not the 1971 war or the emergency in 1975. She let the license raj prosper during her reign. Some give her credit for nationalization of bank and insurance companies in 1969. But it was part of the deal with communists in exchange for their support when the congress party split. Even Indira Gandhi enjoyed firm control over her party for a long time. The way she failed to leverage the win in 1971 is costing us heavily even now.

Did we have any other mass leaders in independent India? We might have. But that is not the point. Most of the mass leaders in India did not do anything worth remembering them after they have left. This may be too harsh a statement, but that is the fact. These leaders had the entire party machinery and the government machinery behind them. But they did not leverage that to take actions which would have benefited the people on a large scale. For example when the Shah Bano case came up in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi had the golden opportunity to introduce uniform civil code, but he did not. He had 4/5 majority in the Lok Sabha which could have let him pass any legislation he wanted (you just need 2/3 majority for a constitution amendment type of legislation).

In a democracy like India, mass leaders are important, but most of them either misuse their power or rule by consensus. At least the latter was not necessary. I guess it is the worry of losing the chair which prevents them from taking path-breaking decisions. I sincerely hope that we will have some mass leaders at the country-level who have the courage to take unpopular decisions which are necessary for the country to prosper beyond a point.