The leaders we need in today’s world

Existentialist questions of the day magnify the importance of leadership committed to a liberal, inclusive, egalitarian order

August 21, 2020 12:15 am | Updated 01:31 am IST

reaching idea businessman, Creative concept

reaching idea businessman, Creative concept

A tormented world, shaken out of its comfort by a pandemic whose devastating reach mocks humanity’s collective capacity to prevail, yearns for answers about our common future. Glaring and persisting inequities of the world order, accentuated by the virus and the digital divide, foretell the story of a failed leadership and failing realisation of the Millennium Development Goals.

The question of leadership befitting the moment was, therefore, seldom more relevant. History beckons us once again to summon leadership that can navigate a happy and secure future for all, anchored in the inviolability of values that define our humanity. Whether one subscribes to the view that history is a chronicle of accomplishments of the great men and women of their time, or believes that they do not make history “...as they please but under circumstances existing already...” the centrality of leadership at transformative moments in history stands empirically established. As Will Durant reminds us, leaders “are the very life and blood of history, of which politics and industry are but a frame”. Arnold Toynbee, in his monumental work, A Study Of History , tells us similarly that the rise and fall of civilisations is a history of periodic challenges and our response to them. Clearly, the question of leadership is integral to the context that summons it.

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A potent cocktail

A survey of the present landscape is both daunting and depressing. The global retreat of democracies, relegation of the ethical imperative to an obsessive pursuit of raw power as an end in itself, a crisis of institutional legitimacy, and the challenge of forging a political consensus needed for hard but necessary decisions interrogate the proclaimed assumptions of democratic resilience. The rise of ‘jingoistic nationalism’ in confrontation with an international cooperative endeavour to face common challenges, a skewed balance between demands of security and sanctity of civil rights, the sordid saga of fake news and misinformation, an unprecedented global financial crisis that has weakened our collective capacity to rescue national economies, loss of millions of jobs with an estimated $3.4 trillion lost in labour revenue and the resultant social distress, heightened geopolitical rivalries, racism, xenophobia, and woeful absence of a united global response to the challenge of climate change collectively present a potent cocktail of societal instability and political disruption.

Increasing encroachment of the private sphere by a ‘surveillance state’ through the abuse of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence systems raise discomforting questions about the flawed dominance of efficiency over ethics and power over principle. Notwithstanding the wholly welcome technological empowerment of vast swathes of humanity, digital inequality, the omnipresence of algorithm-driven platforms and commercial harvesting of personal data raise disquieting questions about an unhindered infraction of privacy rights and human dignity. Issues concerning accountability for autonomous systems, the absence of enforceable global norms on cybersecurity given the expanding reach of cyber bullies, and communal polarisation and violence facilitated by social media raise questions about the future of liberty and dignity in an age of rights. In a world driven by untamed technology, the relationship between its creator as the ‘measure of all things’ and his creation has been reversed. Digital ‘code wars’ are seen as the new ideological confrontation with a potential to divide the world. The diminished authority of the state to regulate the impact of technology on our social and political life questions the original premises of the social compact. The ‘insidious creep’ challenges the idea of the democratic state itself.

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The absence of an enforceable philosophical framework of values defining the boundaries of the digital world in which life as a drama of decisions is supplanted by algorithms and robots impels an unhurried reflection on the kind of world we want and the choices we must make. The new world in which life will be re-engineered and adapted to unprecedented changes will need extraordinary leadership that can apply knowledge of the new age to challenges of the future within a moral framework that celebrates freedom and fairness as cherished values.

Leaders moulded in different frames are expected to follow their own trajectories, hopefully without falling to the seduction of absolute power induced by narrow nationalisms. Indeed, they must decide the bridges they should burn and those they must cross. Leaders are expected to mould the collective reflections of the people and flesh out a vision befitting the task at hand. They must reconcile power with public sentiment. In a world scarred by conflict and injustice, leadership is about giving hope in the future to the marginalised and respecting aspirations and mediating amongst competing views to forge a sustainable political consensus through powerful messaging.

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True leadership

Integrity, consistency, empathy, relentless determination, self-effacing humility, a binding moral compass and the ability to motivate masses within the inviolate ethical and ideological framework of politics are leadership attributes more relevant today than ever. A largeness of heart willing and able to rise above the petty and personal, together with intellectual depth necessary to lead the battle of ideas for the establishment of a dignitarian global society, best define the qualities of leadership in these troubled times. Arrogance, ignorance, obduracy, boastfulness, and ‘scapegoating’ have no place in the lexicon of elevating leadership needed to address the vexed questions that we confront. True leadership is about loyalty to larger purposes of the day and which, when confronted with a necessary choice, owes no apology to other multiple loyalties. It is about investing politics with a high moral purpose.

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Existentialist questions of the day magnify the importance of inspiring leadership committed to a liberal, inclusive and a truly egalitarian order. The time for such a leadership is here. Those aspiring to lead will have many challenges to meet and lessons to learn.

Ashwani Kumar is former Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha

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