The central government’s biggest task in the coming days will be perception and delivery— both which should have been proactive by now. Narendra Modi is still India’s the most loftiest leader and one who is most expected to deliver better governance; but the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) massive win in the Delhi assembly elections has refocused everybody’s attention on governance and accountability. It has indicated that people want to see real change. It’s high time now and they just want it.
I was lately trying to study the success of the Aam Admi Party and its plans for good governance, an assurance given by both the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and Delhi’s newly elected Chief Minister Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. The poll experts though have a very political lens, according to which Kejriwal’s ‘common man’ approach endeared him the masses. Added to this anti-Modi incumbency vote building up, to the collapse of Congress are the other reasons for Kejriwals victory. But I am interested in knowing about the improvements which will be made to the governance of large public programmes bringing services to the people who voted for both Modi and Kejriwal.
As a spectator of the political leaders and their leadership philosophy and styles, I am just trying to analysis the leadership styles which had more impact on the voters to choose for transforming our governance, something which both the leaders had promised. Delhi election seems to have highlighted two very different leadership styles and philosophies. On the one hand we have Modi’s ‘aspirational leadership’ approach which played its role in the ground-breaking 2014 Lok Sabha elections. And on the other hand we have Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘participative leadership’ philosophy that not only won him the Delhi elections but look like to have motivated so many aam aadmi in the country.
It can be said that the Modi philosophy for transformation of governance, is a top-down leadership model, which set venturous goals and introduced mega initiatives like Make-in-India or Swachh Bharat, and tried to come up with a top-down national and international initiative by amplifying budgetary allocation or facilitating policies and regulations. Just opposite to this is the Kejriwals bottom-up philosophy of transformation which is more people-centric to planning and decision making that provides ownership of the change agenda.
Now, if one has to decide upon, which is the more effective leadership style transforming the governance of public services that will benefit the voters more, than this can be a vital task for him. It is not that simple. As we all know that during elections political leaders promises on governance of public services (power, water, roads, education, health, etc) but most of them remains unfulfilled or do not get implemented effectively even if the policies are announced. The politicians have a number of justifications, telling you about the weak delivery system and capabilities on the ground. But one of the main reasons behind it is the lack of ownership of the change agenda by either those who are delivering these promised services, or by the recipients. As a result the conflict continues.
As said by Deng XiaoPing, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice.” Thus the right thing to focus is not on the leadership style, instead focus should be on the improvements that will eventuate in the lives of the voters by transforming the public services. For materialising the transformation in both corporate and public organisations, we need both the leadership styles. We need Modi’s aspirational leadership which lays down ambitious goals and plans, makes them to form public momentum behind the initiatives, and pushes public services delivery organisations out of their comfort zones. But we also need Kejriwal’s participatory leadership style that ignites local ownership among the people who are responsible for delivering these services, and keep them under pressure by creating ownership among the recipients in the change process so that they can come up with their expectations clearly and see how it is being delivered.
