Meritocracy: The dream of Democracy

What kind of leaders do we want? What have we always wanted? We have hated power-hungry people, who don't care for us. We have hated liars. We have hated people who don't have any integrity. We have hated hypocrites. In other words, we have hated "politicians". Well, most of them...

We want people who have an integrity, who care for us, who have done something for us. We want that substance should triumph over style. We desire that the "proof of the pudding is in the eating". We may not say it, but if we introspect, we've always wanted someone who is a "politician by accident". Because "politicians by nature" are (by definition:) power-hungry, selfish, liars, hypocrites. [1]

We have always wanted Meritocracy. The Managing Director of our company never gave any hi-fi speeches to us. But the company grew a lot in his leadership. What do you expect if the Managing Director were to be elected by the employees and the office boys? ... The same has been happening to India. Democracy has its flaws. However, meritocracy seems impossible to accomplish directly at the national/political level. How do you objectively measure merit? And without democracy, a system has the risk of turning into dictatorship any time. So we have democracy.. With a dream that we have meritocracy too.. through benevolent, meritorious leaders. Like Dr.Manmohan Singh and P.Chidambaram.

PS: Many thanks to Narasimha Rao for introducing meritocracy in our democracy, by making Dr.Singh the Finance Minister in 1991.. And the reforms followed!

Jai Ho! Jai Hind!

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[1] Osho speaks:

"The world of politics is basically of the instinctive level. It belongs to the law of the jungle: Might is right. And the people who get interested in politics are the most mediocre. Politics needs no other qualifications except one -- that is, a deep feeling of inferiority."
- From Misery to Enlightenment, #7

"In politics you don't need brains, you don't need intelligence, you don't need sensitivity, you don't need awareness, you don't need love, you don't need compassion. These are all barriers! In politics you need just the opposite qualities. Disqualifications everywhere else are qualifications in politics. All that is needed is a mad hunger for power -- and that is created by an inferiority complex."
- The Secret of Secrets, Vol 2, #4

"I was, and still am, amazed how he could become the prime minister. But the first prime minister of India was of a totally different quality from any other prime minister who was to follow. He was not chosen by the crowd; he was not, in fact, a chosen candidate. He was Mahatma Gandhi's choice.
...
That's how a poet became the prime minister; otherwise there is no possibility for a poet to become a prime minister - unless a prime minister goes mad, and becomes a poet, but that will not be the same thing."
(On his meeting with Jawaharlal Nehru) - Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Session 42

"We have given atom bombs into the hands of children. If no accident happens, that will be a miracle. There is every possibility that an accident is bound to happen. Children are playing with atom bombs.

Politicians are the most immature minds in the world. Only third-rate minds become interested in politics; mediocre people and people who are suffering from an inferiority complex, they become politicians. And in these people's hands are atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, laser beams, and this and that.

You can cease at any moment! -- I may not be able to finish my discourse. Any moment... we are sitting on a pile of hydrogen bombs, and there are so many... it is unbelievable how stupid man can be. We have so many hydrogen bombs that we can destroy every single human being seven hundred times. Now, what stupidity! For what? A man simply dies a single time. If you want to be very cautious, twice will do -- but what is the point of seven hundred times?"
-- The Book of Wisdom, #2

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