CEO - Chief Evasive Officer !

Not very long ago did I use to take pride, like so many of fellow countrymen, to the fact that we had the rarest possibility of our nation being run by two intellectuals at the helm of affairs. A renowned economist who had brought this country from the brinks of bankruptcy by sowing the initial seeds of liberalization as the prime minister and a space scientist, who with the dream of taking this nation and its younger generation to its rightful place in the globe by 2020, as the president. Both these men won the hearts of so many of us, especially the younger generation, not just for their intellect, but for what they brought in them as 'persons' - mild mannered, unassuming, utterly simple and with the cleanest image that can never be resisted. Something you very seldom find amongst our dodgy politico and in a country which was grappling under the ruckus of corrupt politicians. This very idea of a country being led by a CEO and not a political leader itself took some to sink in and soon got the nod of majority of us - one to lead this country as its chief executive and march it along and another to manage the myriads of coalition politics.

Enough of eulogies, all the recent events in this country, right from the Narmada dam controversy to the burning reservation issue has exposed the limitations of what a CEO who is apolitical can or cannot be able to execute. A Prime Minister who cannot utter a word under the disguise of 'convenient ignorance' while almost every other member of his cabinet in a open coup d'etat has an opinion and not lack the courage to espouse their voices, shows the strength of political will over righteousness. How can a Prime Minister not have an opinion or rather the tenacity to express it while a majority section of his people are taking to the roads disapproving one of his government's policy and the worse of all, getting beaten up mercilessly by the cops, scenes very much reminiscent only of the days of freedom struggle. This seriously gives credibility to the opposition's talk on who really is the prime minister? Is it the same old wine of votebank politics, now masqueraded under the 'clean image' wrapper of an individual? How much authority does the prime minister really have over his colleagues who in all their own merit are the backbone of the party's political base? Be it a Meira Kumar who they cannot ignore for her backward class votebank, an Arjun Singh, an old wily fox of political manipulations, a Shibu Soren or Ram Vilas Paswan or a Ramdoss who cannot be ignored for the sheer arithmetic of coalition politics. How much 'execution' can a CEO like setup bring in without the backing of murky politics? No wonder the PM sans the political leader is mysteriously mute, who pathetically lost in the only lok sabha election he contested and who had to get into the parliament thru back door from a state as remote as Assam.

Chief Evasive Officer - that fits in perfectly as well, for a person who is still held at high esteem for his integrity and who is now caught in the web of clumsy political interlude.