#Brexit's lessons for #RGexit
Leadership is not only about knowing how to win. It is also about knowing how to lose.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron may be the butt of some jokes in England with an overwhelming majority on Twitter responding to the hashtag #SuggestAJobForCameron with the only one possible (yes, you guessed it, pig farmer) but for us in India, it's a lesson in accepting defeat with dignity.
When Cameron said he fought this campaign in the only way he knows, "To say directly and passionately what I think and feel - head, heart and soul," he lit up the "Great" in Great Britain.
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| David Cameron. (Reuters) |
He had a choice as his nation decided to go from the empire where the sun never set to King Richard II's sceptred isle which is nothing more than:
"This little world
This precious stone set in the silver sea
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house
Against the envy of less happier lands."
He could have railed against his fate and the impending takeover of the Conservative Party by either Boris Johnson or Theresa May.
He could have stayed in office, if not in power, and listened to the rants of Nigel Farage (who as Gary Lineker described him, remains a d***).
But Cameron decided to resign because the "will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered".
From one what gathers, not a moment too soon. As my friend, London-based writer Jessica Hines wrote to me, "He has spectacularly mismanaged the country, implemented extreme austerity measures which have driven the working class into the arms of right-wing nationalists and has now triggered a global recession".
But it's a lesson for Indian politicians, who never know when to call it quits. There was one politician who knew when to step down.
Indira Gandhi's greatest moment was not when India won the 1971 War against Pakistan and Bangladesh was liberated. Nor was it when she returned to power in 1980.
It was in 1977 when she realised as Jawaharlal Nehru's daughter she could not possibly continue as an anti-democrat. It is true too that she was told by Intelligence Bureau that she would win the elections but there is enough evidence to show that she knew just what was going in Sanjay raj.
But she still called for elections and released all the so-called political prisoners. What happened in 1977 is history.
It's also a lesson her grandson needs to learn. As the Congress party shrinks in size and influence after every electoral defeat, ceding states and regions, isn't it time for Rahul Gandhi to #RGexit?
Leave the Congress party to a fine young second generation? His mother saved the party, ironically also by renunciation. But perhaps it is time for her to realise too that the party is bigger than the family.
And please, let us not call for yet another Gandhi to save the party - the secret weapon of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has not been tested and something tells me, no matter how much Prashant Kishor insists, it will never be tried in Uttar Pradesh.
If #Brexit, according to Nigel Farage, is a victory for decent people, let #Cexit be a lesson for the Congress party leadership.