Indian politicians need management lessons

India is the land of the three most efficient managers the world has ever produced. The award for "Best Manager" surely goes to Krishna, well Lord Krishna to be more specific, whose management principles based on four different strokes - Sam, Daam, Dand and Bhed - for different people is still taught in all business schools even today. The way he was able to manipulate situations in his favor is something that any top business tycoon would die to learn and emulate for the best possible results. His people management skills are beyond any question. The way he convinced a reluctant Arjun to fight the battle of Kurukshetra is worth studying.

The second position for management surely goes to Chanakya and the third to none other than Mahatma Gandhi for managing the highest ever number of people. Both Chanakya and Mahatma Gandhi's principles of management were based on Sam, Daam, Dand and Bhed. The right stroke when used for the right people can have miraculous result. But at the same time the incorrect stroke can cause disaster.The Indian politics is full of incorrect strokes.

When a father motivates a little kid to drink a bottle of milk with the promise of a chocolate he is actually using "Daam" or reward for managing his little kid. This type of management works very well for immature people. When the same kid grows up a bit the same father has to rebuke and scold in order to keep him under control. Then the father is using "Dand" or punishment as a management tactic. When the kid grows up to a young man the aged father discusses his family business with the same kid and takes important decisions together. The father is then using "Sam" or equality in management. The Britishers used the divide and rule or the "Bhed" tactic to manage (or rather mismanage) Indians. Anyone can find out that the father can't apply Sam on the small kid or Dand on his grown up young son. But at the same time he has to use Dand many times to grow the right sense of discipline in his child. Rewarding and punishment at the right time in the right proportion is very essential for an efficient management.

In Indian politics what we see is just Daam and Bhed. There's no space for Sam and Dand. The entire horse trading of MPs is the wrong use of Daam. Not punishing the Left for their irrational behavior is also an instance of not using Dand when it's of utmost importance. The classic example of mishandling the Nuclear Deal is an example of failure to use Sam. It's well known that the BJP had actually sowed the seeds of the nuclear deal. But the Congress didn't want to give any credit to the BJP and wanted to usurp all the credits themselves. That made the BJP antagonized to the entire episode. Had the Congress given the proper credits to BJP publicly and kept them in loop for all their discussions then the later won't have had any scope to antagonize the deal. Even now BJP is never saying that they are opposing the UPA on the nuclear deal. Even in his speech during the debate before the Trust Vote on 22nd July leader of opposition Shri L K Advani made it very clear that BJP is opposing other issues like price hike, inflation, bad conditions of farmers etc. Very aptly BJP utilized the scenario of opposition to the nuclear deal to their favor to create pressure on Congress. The recent crisis won't have arisen at all had the Congress applied Sam or equality in management. Lastly there's innumerable cases of using Bhed. The entire politics of appeasement of Muslims is the blatant use of divide-and-rule tactics. Not only the Hindu-Muslim bhed, people use Dalit-Brahmin, Dalit-OBC, Creamy-non Creamy OBC, Yadavs-non Yadavs and all other forms or bheds or divisions to their advantage.

So overall the entire political class need thorough lessons in management, if at all they are interested to manage the country in an efficient and ethical manner.