Vidyut Jain's Blog

Over the years India has steadily wavered towards cynicism bordering on apathy. The idealistic nostalgia of the pre Independence era has all but faded away. Not much progress seems to have been made on many fronts in this country in the past 60 or so years. The mirages of freedom, prosperity and a dignified life for its citizens have left the people disillusioned and rudderless. The crisis in its leadership is gaping. The politics of cynicism and fear is dominant. The era of defiant and revolutionary politics is dead.

It would be a folly to expect these habitual criminals that we have voted to the parliament to change their methods of governance. So, the way out of this mess is that we start to change ourselves and our perspectives of the present politics to a new politics of the future.

A country which woke up to independence from the womb of idealistic thinking and actions seeking such ends, today finds itself devoid of it. The cynical political leaders and the politics of divisiveness of their rhetoric have killed idealism within us. The politics of this country has failed to inspire its citizens to achieve to the best of their abilities. Now the time has come push idealism back into our politics. It is a time for optimism. It is time for a renewal.

I can think of no human being who is not at the same time has not been an idealist at some point in time. It could have been in the youth or the old age, the fact would remain that he wished for a better situation than was currently presented. Some of them held on to it to take up the challenge of leadership others led it fade. In the same breath I could add another question: what is leadership? You may wonder how it is related to idealism. In some sense it is idealism. Every leader is an idealist, but not every idealist is a leader till such time as he does not take up the challenge of leadership. But, what is this challenge of leadership?

The challenge of leadership is the gap between an imagined vision and its implementation. This could occur due to various reasons like – corruption, incompetence, lack of discipline but, to my mind most importantly, lack of inspiration. If one is not inspired enough by his vision of the future, his articulation of it, no matter how eloquent will not inspire others. This is where only a few truly great men have come to be.it is their ability to inspire people and to move them to action that makes them stand apart.

To be inspired is a sustained state of mind, and not many of us can take that for too long, and if action is not forthcoming, disappointment knocks round the corner. This is where the gaps starts to form and cynicism fill it. The challenge of leadership emerges from the failure of people who have left the road half way. India today suffers from this at a grand scale; the forthcoming future doesn’t look too bright either if the gap continues. However, if we can fill the gap and emerge from the challenge of leadership we have a terrific future waiting, all its citizens.

We as citizens of this nation have to start believing that justice, fairness, a good and accountable government are not mere words, but perspective which can be realised into reality. We have to think of the possibilities not the impossibilities. For a dull mind everything is impossible, but for those who choose to be inspired by ideas nothing is. The impossible is something which simply has not been done before, it is a challenge.

The history of human progress is the triumph of idealism, because someone somewhere believed in those ideas, because someone somewhere took a stand to realise it, because someone somewhere choose to give up the comfort and monotony of everyday existence to envision and create the place he lived better. We stand on the shoulders of giants so that we can see further, it is demeaning to human dignity to spend their lives at their feet.

So my countrymen believe that each and every one of you can make the difference, start to believe in the ideas for a new future to be created by us together. Let us be the founders of change.

The problem with India is that the leaders of this nation are not being able to inspire us to achieve the best in us. They have failed us as our leaders. As, as a consequence of which we have resigned to believe in ourselves. The politics of divisiveness and fear is the direct outcome of chasing the chimera of equality, rather than opportunity. This very politics of equality is leading our nation to its ruin.

The time has come to start assembling to leading our country to a fundamentally new direction.

To join in the on-going effort please visit www.freedomteam.in .

Believe in the power of ideas. Be Inspired!