Popular literature, various political parties, news channels etc. have been focusing on the debate of two centers of power in present UPA government. Political circles have branded our honourable Prime-minister as weak, without political acumen, and have harped on his lack of connect with masses as he has never been a political leader. However, if we look at the model from an organizational perspective certain key points emerge.
First of all let us agree on the assumption that just because some one is a political leader with mass following does not mean she/he is the best person to look after a responsible designation in government. For example, a political leader might not be an expert in economics but might end up becoming a trade and commerce minister or a finance minister. No doubt, such people have a retinue of bureaucrats to help them out but fact of the matter is that one's own understanding does play an important role. Gone are the days when generalists ruled the roost and in today's world of super specialization having a deep understanding of the function could well be the difference between running the show with success or failure. The entire gamut of bureaucrats (undoubtedly highly qualified) might have their own fish to fry. I am not doubting the abilities of our political leaders but let us accept this that not everything is straight forward to understand and simple to execute.
What I am getting to is separation of political leadership and functional expertise. A particular political party might have a set of experts who subscribe to basic party philosophy but when it comes to making decision which are complex such people should have the say. In event of political parties forming governments such experts need to be given specific responsibilities.
In this context let us examine the present scenario. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is primary leader representing congress party but prime ministerial candidate was chosen as Dr. Manmohan Singh, well known economist, ex RBI governor, ex-finance minister. In my opinion if we look at the event keeping away the political tones, this represents meritocracy at the highest level. Not that I am a congressman or something but I believe this separation between political leadership and functional expertise is the way to go in future. This could bring about appropriate debate between popular politics as it plays out in most decisions and an appropriate technical analysis conducted by an expert to bring out a way which is acceptable to both the sides.
Lastly, I am no way implying that this will bring down the significance of mass based political leaders. In fact it will only serve to enhance their political base and give a fillip to good policy making.
