I had somehow not heard Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) of Lok Satta party speak till this day.
I found a whole set of videos in youtube and each of them provided wonderful insights into his thinking.
There was this debate going on in CNBN regarding leadership crisis in India. The host, Sagarika said that it seemed as if in the present scenario in India, with all the fractious behaviour, terrorism threat, poverty and illiteracy, the leaders are helpless (even if we assume there are any true leaders).
Dr. JP started his response with the following sentence (or sth similar):
"By definition a leader can't be helpless..."
I was taken aback with his clarity of thought and fearless conviction.
Fearlessness is a great virtue which doesn't come easily. Only when you are damn sure of what you want to do, only when you are confident that you are right, only when you are right do you become fearless. That is when words flow so easily. When I heard Dr. JP speak, irrespective of how crooked or pointed a question was, he answered them effortlessly with such clarity of thought that it was a treat to watch him say. He is such a numbers guy, nd rightly so. You ought to know the statistical figures when u r dealing with demographic issues. I was reminded of an interview of Mr. Arjun Singh (our ex-HRD minister) with Karan Thapar. Mr. Arjun Singh almost unfailingly failed to give out any relevant figures related to Thapar's questions.
When Swami Vivekananda spoke, they say he was at absolute ease.
I personally had the fortune to see the yoga guru, Baba Ramdev in flesh and blood, speak at IIT Delhi. It took him a while to settle down. Initially he spoke in slow pauses. But, in a few mins, once he settled down, there was no stopping. He so passionately spoke about India in Hindi, that it was wonderful to just hear him speak.
I'm full of admiration for Dr. JP. My goodness, when u r backed by honesty and powered by true action, it just shows up. Fortunately he is a person who can express what is in his mind, lucidly and effortlessly. Or shall I say, if your actions are good leading u to be fearless, u automatically would express urself with the same ease as Dr. JP does.
(Side note: Wikipedia says Dr. JP was All India 2nd in the IAS exam, vow !!).
