How to select a Leader – An example set by Moraji Desai

I quote the following lines from the book ‘I too had a Dream’ by Verghese Kurien, who built the Amul Dairy Cooperative along with Tribhuvandas Patel and Dalaya.

“Sardar Patel urged the dairy farmers to organize milk cooperatives, which would give them control over the resources they generated. He assigned Moraji Desai, his deputy to coordinate this effort.

At a meeting of the dairy farmers, Morajibhai asked for volunteers to serve as chairman of the organization. A few people volunteered, but Morajibhai looked around and spotted Tribhuvandas Patel sitting quietly in the gathering. Tribhuvandas was then a young and committed freedom fighter (Pre-Independence days) and the elected Vice-President of the Kaira District Congress Committee.

‘Don’t you want to be the chairman?’ Morajibhai asked him. ‘No Saheb’, replied Tribhuvandas Patel. ‘I have just come out of Jail for the fourth time and my health is not so good. I just want to go home and recover. Besides, I don’t know anything about the dairy business’.

Morajibhai heard him out and said, ‘So you don’t want to be the chairman? In that case – you shall be the chairman’. And Tribhuvandas was selected as the chairman of the Kaira cooperatives. Morajibhai probably believed that if somebody wanted to be the chairman badly enough, then he would definitely have some vested interest, and that was certainly not right”.

Contrast this with the Politicians of today who go from house to house, who shout at every possible place (meeting), who will do anything to get elected as a leader!

Destination Infinity

6 thoughts on “How to select a Leader – An example set by Moraji Desai

  1. Ashwathy

    Interesting…. 🙂
    Can u imagine this happening today? Ever?

    1. Rajesh K

      Generously assuming, perhaps 1% of our leaders might be like this? But I cannot say that confidently!

      Destination Infinity

  2. A

    Rajesh,

    Sorry I disagree with you. Desai himself wanted to be PM ….he did not apply theory to himself. At the end of the day he was a politician.

    1. Rajesh K

      Well, that’s some logic alright. But to see the things going on around us, and the way politicians are fighting for seats, one tends to lose confidence on democracy.

      Destination Infinity

  3. Nita

    Today, with the Anna Hazare agitation in full swing, with the man shouting that he does not want to be a leader…we all know who should be.

    1. Rajesh K

      Absolutely! I agree with it 100% 🙂

      Destination Infinity

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