There is a real crisis of leadership and governance across the world. From America to Greece to Venezuela to India, people are worried and angry. Even during my recent trip to America, I sensed a public cry about great leadership. I think almost all of us will agree that there is indeed a crisis. I am more concerned about India. And I want to highlight some events that happened in the month of May in different years, which underscore the importance of a leadership crisis in India. I have five such events that to make my point clear.

The first one is May 1964 when Jawaharlal Nehru Passed away. He actually ruled India for about 17 years and was so popular that he could have been elected a dictator! I know there are many top journalists and scholars who seem to think now that Nehru was bad for India. I wouldn’t even waste time laughing at them. The fact is, Nehru was a great leader. In fact, if Nehru was Prime Minister, there would have been no chance of this stupid debate about the cartoon concerning Dr Ambedkar. He had differences with the first President Rajendra Prasad and they were often bitter. But it never showed. In fact, his son-in-law Feroze Gandhi criticized him publicly in Parliament and made a Finance Minister resign because of a scam. I am sure Nehru didn’t like any of that. And I know he was a human, unlike the propaganda of some that he was God. He was humiliated during the 1962 conflict with China. But he was a leader and took it on his chin.