How the mighty behave...

Just finished reading a news item online about Anna Hazare attacking Rahul Gandhi for not meeting the Sarpanch "Head man" of his village despite being called to come with a purported prior appointment. For those of you who are unaware of the controversy, let me jot it down.

Anna Hazare, I am sure you must have heard of, if not - he is the anti-corruption crusader in the Gandhi mould. He lives in a village called Ralegan Siddhi which he has transformed into a model village. Anna is perceived by many in the Government to be anti - Congress. However, popular perception is that he is anti - government only because the government of the day is not serious about fighting corruption by enacting tough laws.

Rahul Gandhi is the scion of the Congress party and viewed by large numbers to be the Prime Minister in waiting whenever the Congress comes to power next. Rahul has been on a PR offensive, trying to portray an image of being connected to the common man and very much concerned with their welfare. It is to protect this image that the idea of inviting the village head man, from the village of the present arch rival of Congress - Anna Hazare, must have come.

There is no denying from the Congress that one of its MP's called and invited the village Sarpanch to come and meet Rahul. On the day of the appointment, the sarpanch and the team accompanying him were told that they could not meet Rahul since there was no appointment. Now no sane person can believe that Rahul did not know of the meeting. The fact that there was to be a meeting was widely covered in the media - print as well as TV. There was no way anybody could have missed it, least of them the media managers of Rahul.

This brings me to the core topic - how the mighty behave? Let us give Rahul the benefit of doubt that he did not know or it genuinely slipped his or his secretary's mind to make the appointment in the appointment diary. But even then, if a congress MP had made the appointment, a fact that could have been easily verified by Rahul's office and the people had travelled thousands of miles, couldn't Rahul who portrays himself as a man of the masses, have taken time our to meet the villagers? After all common courtesy demands this.

But then the real fact, as I guess, is something different. The Congress media managers and Rahul's managers must have developed cold feet at the last moment. This could be due to the thought that the meeting could provide extra mileage or perhaps fresh ammunition to the Anna team. But then this shows weakness on Rahul's part. If he is really serious about bringing change then he should not be scared, and should not be guided by the likes of Digvijay Singh. The sooner he develops his own mind, the better it will be for him and India.

This also brings me to the larger question - does being in a position of power or authority give us the liberty of being arrogant or being perceived us as being arrogant???? My belief is that when one is in power one must be extra cautious to appear as humble and approachable.

I will give another example of how those who are in Power think they know all and behave arbitrarily. We joined a PR alliance and we were told that we were partners from India. While we were not promised exclusivity, what we were told was that there would not be another partner from India, unless the market grew big enough for one partner not being able to service the market. We were also told that if such a situation were to arise we would be first consulted before beginning a dialogue with anyone. And we are only six months into the organisation.

A week back we suddenly got a mail from the Regional Chair saying that they are appointing a new Indian Partner and we were being given advance notice, so that it should not come as a surprise to us. Surprised by it: bloody hell, we were shocked.

Over the course of the last week we have had mails and telecons with the powers that be. They are making all the right noises, saying how they are sorry that this happened, it should not have happened, BUT the new member will be in anyways. Yes you read it right, there was no going back on the new member. Now you tell me: if this is not the height of abuse of power, then what is?? Were we treated as partners - NO, then how can this organisation claim to be a partnership. They now say that they "thought" India was a big market which could not be handled by one agency and that we should educate the partners about the Indian Market, but they will not reconsider their decision.

Moral of the story - be powerful yourself so that nobody can dare to abuse you, but be careful not be accused of abusing others.