Foot in the mouth!

Mired in the 2G scam, rising prices of onions and a moribund lower house of parliament, Congress points man Digvijay Singh, emerged the other day with all guns blazing.He brazenly labelled the Hindutva parties as 'Nazis'.

Not surprisingly the saffron brigade was up in arms and responded with all sorts of counter allegations. If Singh was attempting to divert attention from the various scams' that his party finds itself in, I doubt if he has succeeded.

The interesting point in this whole shindig is why did Singh, compare the Hindutva brigade to the Nazis? The Nazis were socialists, which the Hindutva parties, do not claim to be. The Nazis decimated six million Jews, who were rounded up like cattle, from all over Europe and then either worked to death or gassed in various prison camps ( concentration camps ), not before hideous experiments were carried out on them, in the name of humanity and science. I highlighted 'Concentration Camps', because this was the handiwork of the white apartheid Government of South Africa, before the Nazis came about.The Hindutva brigade in India just do not have the capacity to run such a pogrom, not that they have shown an interest. Also, the point remains, as to who are they going to target in India? Is Singh referring to the well documented religious support that Hitler received in Germany, in decimating Jews?

In the midst of the circus, the Government of Israel, issued a terse one liner....asking ignorant politicians to understand the full purport of the Holocaust and not use the tragic deaths of millions of Jews to settle political scores.

Maybe Singh could take a conducted tour of standing concentration camps in Poland & the erstwhile Soviet Union, with a stop over at Nuremberg, to get a better understanding of what Nazi Germany did.

The trip, during summer in Europe at tax payers expense of course!

Chance!

Have you ever experienced that sense of Deja vu, where you feel external events are in control of your destiny? Did you feel that decisions that you think you have made are nothing but the throw of a dice? Chance..........

The American War of Independence at its height saw a beleaguered General George Washington fighting for his and his fledgling army's survival. Shortly before the crucial Battle of Brandywine ( What a name? ), while patrolling a battle area, Washington,is said to have chanced upon, a British army Captain. The General, turned his back on the British officer and rode away. The captain was the famed Captain Ferguson, inventor of the Ferguson breech rifle, which was a quantum jump in fire power for those days.The young Captain, raised his rifle and sighted Washington. For some reason, he then lowered his rifle!Had Ferguson killed Washington, that fateful day, the war would have most certainly taken a different turn, as the Americans did not have another leader of the stature of the great General. Why did Ferguson not shoot? We have no answer. However in those fuzzy few moments, a single man's decision altered world history..........

Another good example, is that of the great Mughal emperor Akbar. Akbar was firmly under the thumb of his wet nurse Maham Anga, who from all accounts was an irascible bigot. Akbar could not shake her off as he felt obligated, till her son, Adham Khan, in a drunken fit murdered one of Akbars ministers.The Mughal took an on the spot decision to execute Adham Khan, which in turn sent Maham Anga into retirement, allowing Akbar to be a more benevolent ruler and consolidating his kingdom.History changed course in about an hour. Contrast this with his great grandson Aurangzeb who was a bigot and set in motion, the decline of the great Mughals. Had Adham Khan not got drunk.........

Hitler had Europe beaten. In Asia, Japan was coiled to strike. A single German division under Erwin Rommel, had scattered the British in Africa, threatening the Suez Canal in Egypt. Iraq was lost, cutting off the land route for the Brits to India and then Hitler invaded Russia. The single decision cost Germany the war. Why did Hitler take that decision?

Random decisions, making history, that's what makes life interesting...........the throw of dice. Chance!

Perils of Leadership!

Ernst Hemmingway, the much acclaimed and celebrated American author, was asked as to why he deserted his wife and little child for another woman. Hemmingway simply said ‘Because I’m a bastard!’Do we remember, Hemmingway today, as a scumbag or as a great author, who won the Nobel Prize? The latter would be true, I think.
Mahatma Gandhi will go down as one of the world’s greatest transformational leaders of all time and is remembered for that, not for the neglect that his family went through due to his enormous sacrifice. Leadership comes at a steep price that many a mortal is not ready to bear.
Winston Churchill was a washed up back bencher, when Hitler started World War 2, resurrecting his dead career. Churchill seized the moment and went on to become a great politician.
Adolf Hitler was an effective leader; till his megalomania took hold and he lost it all.
As I teach leadership, I grapple with multiple facets to a leader and leadership. Leadership is a complex area, contextual and situational, where the results determine the leader’s efficacy. There is no room for an also ran……….
Paul Gauguin the genius and post impressionist painter fled France for Tahiti, deserting his family,by sea, where he created his masterpieces..........what if the ship had sunk onvoyage.Would we have heard, of Gaugin the genius? It might have well been Gaugin the wretch!

Good to Great!

There is a seemingly apocryphal story, about one of Britain's greatest Prime Ministers, Winston Churchill, which goes as follows:

Young man (seeing Churchill leaving the bathroom without washing his hands):

At Eton they taught us to wash our hands after using the toilet.

Churchill: At Harrow they taught us not to piss on our hands.

This conversation, personifies the man! Opinionated, razor's wit and rigid he is my favourite politician, who recognized, Adolf Hitler & the Nazi's for what they were, even before the rest of the world had woken up to them and the threat that they posed.Churchill brilliantly navigated the Brits through WW 2, but on cessation of the great war was seemingly lost & voted out of power.

There is another story that I really like.............

Churchill, found himself at an airfield in reviewing the airmen. He was introduced, to one airman, who had, survived a stricken & on fire bomber and had saved himself and his other colleagues under very trying circumstances.Meeting the Prime Minister was a momentous occasion & the airman was very nervous. Churchill, noticed this and asked the man if he felt small in his ( Churchill's ) presence? The airman said yes, he did, looking awkward. Churchill, then said, he too felt very small in the airman's presence, because he could never have been so brave!

Power distance & placing folk on a pedestal have plagued us & continues to do so.In the classic Forrest Gump, the young Forrest is called stupid by all and sundry, till his mother steps in and says, 'stupid is as stupid does'. What a revelation & how true! You can only be stupid if you do stupid things, you cannot be intrinsically stupid.Striking insight!

I think the analogy hold good for the 'Greats' as well.......you are great as long as you do great things and vice versa!A person's greatness lies in his actions and not in the position that he/she holds.

Churchill was a vain man who understood greatness and gave it its due, with wry humor and that for me made him great and in in the same breath endowed him with a great sense of humility!

He says.....

When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast.

Reply to King George VI, on a cold morning at the airport. The King had asked if Churchill would take something to warm himself.

Power Distance.......not Churchill!

Power Corrupts!

When Lord Acton said- Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely- the old gent knew what he was talking about.
Does a position of great responsibility and power vest you with the right to take law into your own hands, even when you feel, your actions are for the larger good? Names like Satyam, ENRON & Parmalat scream out in anguish the follies and ethical failures of their top brass. In all instances, top executives from these organizations, while lining their own pockets, had little remorse for what they had done. Why ? Hadn't they slogged & sweated blood to set up the organization? Who was the law to interfere if they took a few short cuts. Arrogance of the powerful and an inability to see right from wrong are dangerous habits, when they reside in the powerful and decision makers.
Look at the following story.... With the curtains rapidly dropping on World War 2, the Nazi's were desperate to clear their concentration camps ( to hide evidence) where all anti socials ( as deemed by Adolf Hitler ), including Jews, Gypsies, Communists and Homosexual's were held prisoner. One such infamous camp was Auschwitz, in Poland. In clearing the camp, a group of women prisoners, on a long march, were sheltered in an old church for the night.As luck would have it, the church was bombed in the night and caught fire. What do you think happened to the 300women prisoners, in the church? Two hundred and ninety nine perished in the inferno ! Why could their guards, not let them out? A guard later said, that they were 'guards' and could not let the prisoners 'escape' from the church by letting them out, so they allowed them to burn! It is this kind of perverse logic that is dangerous and demonic. The top brass of Satyam, ENRON & Parmalat, are either dead or cooling their heels in prison. Just reward for their sins, but what about the innocent share holders and employees whose lives that they have destroyed, in pursuit of their greed.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGvQtumNAY )

Follow the link to see an enthralling courtroom drama where....... Col. Nathan Jessop,is commander, of an elite group of marines, on Guantanamo Bay,off Cuba. He orders a banned disciplinary procedure, called the 'Code Red' on one of his marines ( Private Santiago ) to punish him, for slackness and breaking the chain of command. In the process, the marine dies ( a rag is stuffed down his throat & he is gagged, causing him to suffocate) & the marines buddies who were part of the 'Code Red' are charged with murder as the powerful and well connected Colonel, denies that he gave the order.The Colonel is finally cornered ( by a brilliant Lt. Kafee, played by a young Tom Cruise, who knows that the egoistic Colonel will self destruct if provoked), his arrogance gives him away and he faces a court martial.

Why does the Colonel order the 'Code Red'? Because he believes that he is the man on the spot and reserves the right to bend rules as he does a job more important than those that others do. Sheer arrogance! What about the troopers who are accused of murder, for following orders? Plain bad luck.........

When Ramalinga Raju was jailed, there was a school of thought which said that he should be treated 'kindly' as he had done a lot of good work, by providing jobs for many Indian's. Hitler provided a great many jobs in Germany, by mobilizing his nation for war and building the autobahns. Does that cut any ice with the six million Jews he murdered or people of the nations that he destroyed by following the diktat's of a crazed mind? I do not think so............

Ethics and morality are not words that exist only for the powerless and poor.It would do us good to remember that every day at work and if you find your ethical values being tested I suggest you find another place to work before the corrupt, corrupt you.

I know what my young friends would say...............discipline & rules are stifling.......maybe, but they provide the bedrock for a just society & keep us from descending into chaos.

It would also do us good, on occassion, to pause & reflect where we are heading......