Should people with ‘resolute beliefs’ be in governance?

Should people with ‘resolute beliefs’ be in governance?

“Make the naughtiest kid the monitor.” - Anonymous

This quote was the highlight when Donald Trump became the President of US. Similar situations are creeping up in many countries where least popular choices are getting elected to high level posts. Indian constitution in Article 16 states that’ No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion……, be discriminated against, in respect of, any employment or office under the State.’ Keeping true to the spirit of the Indian Constitution, political scenario in India is seeing changes which were never thought possible. People with strong and resolute beliefs are manning positions at the helm of the ship in not just India but even the world! Donald Trump’s personality, his thoughts, declarations, some of his hard-line beliefs, created controversy and made him the least likely candidate to be the President of the USA. But yet he won! This raises many questions like where is the world political order heading with number of such strong, resolute and sometimes hard-liner personalities helming the ship? A Pew research mentions that in 30 countries (15% of total), heads of state must belong to a certain religion! Will it be good for all or is it calm before a storm?

Doomsday is fast approaching!

• If you hear the propaganda and election speeches of many candidates who are standing for elections, it would no doubt make you suspicious of their intentions of an equal and just world.
• Such personalities have staunch believes and they are looking for ways to propagate those directly and indirectly.
• With position of power, such people get enough indirect channels to embed their beliefs in minds of the youth. Their speeches and election manifestoes are ample proof of their intentions.
• All must have equal opportunities to be a part of political process, but that doesn’t mean that all are suitable. Such resolute and staunch believers, hard-liners may not be best choice for highest level offices.
• People having staunch beliefs are not malleable and cannot mold themselves to cater to all communities and their needs. This can lead to discontent amongst some communities.
• People who are at highest level need to be flexible and understanding because if they are not so, the entire nation would be continuously in a state of unrest and fear – fear of chaos, fear of outburst, fear of end of peaceful life, fear of authority, etc.
• With such leaders emerging all over the world, the future looks bleak.
• Leaders of the nations represent the entire nation. Their views, opinions and actions that follow the footsteps of these views, bring good or bad on the entire nation. They hold the image of the entire nation in their hands. They are more likely to tarnish that image.
• Having such people elected to highest offices of any country is like playing with fire, which we all know can be dangerous.

They may surprise you!

• Yes, they may surprise you! When people head diverse communities, they become even responsible since to continue in position of power they have to cater to all the communities.
  With increasing awareness amongst the citizens, rash, irrational and harmful decisions cannot be taken. No whims would be tolerated.
• Many hard-liners need to soften their stance as people can easily oust them from their office and take away their power. Especially in country like India, hard-liners can never maintain their stance as India has been known to throw the British out by just the weapon of ‘Satyagraha’.
• Also, the checks and balances in diverse nation like India are huge; to check the preached ideology and decisions taken. As long as decisions are in favor of the entire nation and humanity, the person who takes the decision remains irrelevant.
• Indian Constitution provides equal right to every person to be a part of political process. This is same for most of the nations around the world.
• We can see that even a person as direct and vocal as Donald Trump has to take cognizance of all the citizens he is representing, be it republican or democrat, before commenting or even taking a decision.
• People with resolute personalities are needed in this time to take hard and unpopular decisions. They can act like the bitter medicine needed for strong and good governance.
• TCS: GST If dictatorial tendencies could be kept in check, these personalities can be the solution needed for slack in governance and discipline.
• We have always criticized other nations for mixing state and religion. But those nations are either prosperous or poor. They are poor only because of mis-governance. And mis-governance has no adjectives like religious, radicals, hard-liners, liberals, etc.
• Also, there is another perspective that can be considered. There has been no truly secular or prejudice-free leader as such till now. All are humans and bound to have opinions. As long as leaders’ actions speak the universal language of progress, their personal opinions should not cloud our judgment of them.

If a person claims to be liberal minded, then he/she would definitely agree to the fact that, ‘Opinions of a person doesn’t prove his worth, it is only the person’s actions that show his value.’ So a person with radical views can bring about good changes and progress when he/she sits on the thorny seat of power. Their ascension to power does not take the world towards chaos and towards single ideology. Many have reversed their earlier images by the development work they did. This can be hoped in the coming future too.