Akhilesh Yadav: The New Face of Indian Politics
By Ayush Prasad
Mar 7: Indian democracy has showed signs of maturing and evolving. There was a 43% rise in the number of female voters in feudalistic UP. In Punjab the reformist incumbent is back to power for the first time in it's history. And SP or the Socialist Party that's close friends with top industrialists won 226 seats which is a record, apart from Indira frenzied UP from 1985.
The man of the day is certainly Akhilesh Yadav, for reorienting his party to remain relevant in modern times. Those who do not change with the times, perish!
Akhilesh studied in Dholpur Military School. Since his mother passed away at an early age, he was brought up by his grandmother. He had appeared in Karnataka Common Engineering Entrance Test in 1990 and secured a merit seat for Civil Engineering at SJC College of Engineering, Mysore. He was a sincere but average student. He used to travel by train. Neither his teachers nor most of his classmates knew he was the son of then UP CM. After his Engineering, he appeared in GRE exam and did MSc Environmental Engineering from University of Sydney (one of the top Universities for the course).
Mulayam Singh, famous for OBC politics had strongly objected to Akhilesh's marriage with a Rajput girl. Going against his father's wishes, he married Dimple Singh, an Army officer's daughter. In 2009, she contested and lost a Lok Sabha seat to Raj Babbar. This spurted him into action and he undertook 3 yatras that will culminate in 10 Kalidas Marg tomorrow.
He took some bold decisions such as keeping Dons out of the party and leaving caste-religion politics!
One can draw several lessons. For one, no defeat is final. Every defeat is a good chance to throw out the old and usher in the new.
Numbers are very important. For a politician, numbers are the seats; for a CEO it's the profits; for a student it's the marks; for a cricketer it's wicket/runs. Numbers quantify the results that define the perception of success or failure. Decisions get justified or criticised due to the number. If there the number is low, every step taken seems wrong. Akhilesh and Rahul Gandhi did similar things such as giving chance to youth but numbers changed the meaning of each!
Bold decisions must be taken with conviction and must be followed up by action. Success of a decision is not only dependent on the decision itself but also on the action that follows it. Akhilesh had the conviction to remove dons, he took a risk but followed up with action such as aggressive campaigning!
To be a leader, one has to relate to the followers. Not only should one understand the aspirations and pain, but feel it too. Akhilesh has gone thru the grind of today's youth, he connects better and hence could attract them. Whereas Rahul was an angry man in India's happiest state (UP).
There was once a time that was about Globalisation. Companies created global brands and products. Political Parties won National Mandate. With better and economical forms of communication and transportation, the world has become a much smaller place. But ironically the trend is of localisation. MNCs around the world have set up R&D labs in different countries to modify old products and to develop new products that meet the needs of the local consumers. Hence you would see McDonald's burgers that have "tadka" flavour or Coca Cola launch Nimbu Pani. Engineers in ITPL Bangalore break their heads to design fuel efficient cars with good suspensions for Indian roads with Global Brands.
Similarly in politics, regional parties and leaders do well because they understand regional issues and aspirations. Rahul spoke about larger issues while Akhilesh spoke about local development like building toilets or roads etc.
But my sympathies are with Rahul. Famous parents are as an added advantage. But it's also seen as a perpetual silver spoon where ones hard-work gets undermined. People assume of a "Hand that pushed in your support" exists at ALL times but in reality it does not
For children in families like Gandhis or Bachchans or Deols times of failure are particularly hard. One carries a huge burden of expectation. Mulayam Singh may also have failed several times, made mistakes and learnt from them. He grew from scratch and unlike Rahul Gandhi, media and others were not after him at all times pointing out and criticising his errors.
Rahul Gandhi worked very hard. And speaking from personal experience, sometimes some things don't work out and sometimes some things just do. He lost and deserves criticism; that is a price of his silver spoon.
But the UP wallas can be a cynical bunch, they may have punished him for his hard work!!! As the joke on twitter goes: "42-year-old Rahul is still a kid... But 39-year-old Akhilesh has 3 kids."