The Aam Aadmi, the common man is someone whose desires, ambitions, demands are “Aam” i.e. common. And the Aam Aadmi seeks a leader who is concerned about the Aam janata (common people). It is seen that political leaders profess themselves as leaders of the common man. But unfortunately the so called common man’s leaders are very commonly, not keen in addressing their problems.
Aam Aadmi asks for a leader who can understand the problems of the oppressed. But it happens that the very reason for the oppressed to be so is the leaders themselves. The demands of a common man are very limited, specific, achievable, realistic, Aam ‘common’ in nature, but still the leaders do not put efforts to fulfil those demands. The leaders in the present scenario have been labelled as the “leaders who never reached the Common Man”. This situation spurts a question -what is the definition of a true Aam Aadmi Leader?
It is seen that the Aam Aadmi leader is not necessarily an Aam Aadmi himself. The leader for the common man is not commonly a common man. Leaders hailing from royal families step in to the small huts and share the water for once to show that they are one of those jhopari nivasi. But unfortunately the illiterate aam Aadmi is unaware of the entire plan behind that.
He only knows that once in every five years, he will get a new 100 rupee note or a packet of liquor asking him to stamp the swastika sign on a symbol. At most he can only understand the abbreviation of the party he has been asked to vote for, not to forget he cannot read any alphabets. Those names on the election sheet are Greek and Latin to him. What he knows is only the sign.
History tells us that the greatest Common Man’s leader was Smt Indira Gandhi. She was so strong, clear and confident in her values and beliefs, that most of the work she did has helped the poor. And even till today, after almost 25 years since her death, she still lives in the hearts of millions of people.
But, that was past. After her reign concluded, we have hardly come across any leader who could match her charisma. We now see that the present leaders are working only for khaas aadmi though they claim otherwise.
Things in India are changing, but the most important thing i.e. politics in India is the same or going worse, instead of getting better. People who are concerned about the future of the country are often afraid that the large slurry of political leaders might dirt the new ones also.
So, who would be the perfect Leader for the Common man? What does the common man himself ask for? Various surveys say that a common man looks for a leader who can provide the basic needs of the people. But it is also true that most of the voters from the rural India while voting, consider a leader only if that leader promises more free of cost goods.
The apt common man’s leader has to be genuinely concerned about the oppressed and poor. We might not be able to exactly define the Aam Aadmi Leader, but we can definitely declare that a genuine leader is always one who works for the welfare the Aam Aadmi. The day is yet to come where we could see a leader emerging from the dregs of the society and does miraculously well; the Ajooba is yet to come for the Aam Aadmi who will set an example of an Ideal common man’s leader.
The writer is a correspondent at Youth Ki Awaaz and also an MBA student at IIFT.