Vacancy: Leaders with intellect

What is the worse you can do if you go on stage for a speech? Choke up; stammer; at the most, faint! How about reading somebody else's speech? Seems unlikely, yet this is precisely what occurred at the Security council meeting underway at the UN. The unlikely suspect- India's cabinet minister for external affairs, Mr. S.M. Krishna.

Thankfully, Krishna had a real-life Krishna at his disposal, the Indian envoy to the UN, who quickly corrected him and saved the country the collective embarrassment of being postured as a weak European country. Think about it. India, considered the 2nd largest exporter of students in the world and long casted as a country of intellect, was almost subbed for Portugal in an international security meeting. While no significant harm was done, and the MEA has issued a substantial clarification on what went wrong and how the minister erroneously read out the introduction, which is common for every participating country. Accordingly, his speech was 'well received', for its portrayal of India's rise as a global superpower in the 21st century. Yeah right! No noob is going to come up and tell him what a fool he made of himself. Isn't that what diplomacy is based on?

Two puzzling points which come out from this piece of information: Does the UN have nothing better to do than to hear the same lines over and over again? How about discussing the uprising in the Middle East and how the UN can play a role in it, or how it can tackle the problem of rising European debt and foster closer ties within the unruly Asian sub-continent. No wonder most discard the UN today as a prestigious body of lazy diplomats. Secondly, don't ministers at least bother to go over what they are going to speak in the public. It is shameful enough that our ex-minister for Railways wants to eradicate the advance of English in his native state if voted to power, but the MEA committing a gaffe which gets noticed throughout the world instantly? Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, whose birthday we celebrate as Teacher's day, was known for a honorable tendency. He never read out prepared speeches, rather chose to speak out spontaneously on occasions of national importance.

It is insulting to read that our policy-makers are so averse to common sense that they make the Shiv Sena appear more circumspect at times. Dr. Singh, kindly conduct a coaching session for Rahul baba right away, lest he flares up more public emotion with controversial remarks on the Babri Masjid and continues to do so once he eventually becomes the PM of India as is the prayer of secularists!

To offer some hope, a beautiful composition from Aamir