Of the issue of leadership-II

 

 

THE failed grand picture of a developed Nagpur -- painted by political leadership years ago -- is a direct result of leadership-failure, a retired bureaucrat said during a chat last week (in the wake of the last week’s episode of ‘Footloose In Nagpur -- May 8, 2025). The city of Nagpur must be bogged down by countless dozens of issues of failed urban designs -- of fly-overs, of road-architecture, or road-intersections, or pavements or sidewalks lining the roads, of the approaches and exits at the ends of different bridges, or the challenge of providing appropriate design that would be good for the city’s water bodies ... ! And all this is obviously because there is no leadership that will have the time and inclination and courage to ask straight and right questions to those mandated to take care of designing and execution of various developmental projects in the city.

 

Because there is nobody to ask serious, no-nonsense questions, the city gets loaded down with wrong designs and execution of urban infrastructure. By this token, the senior bureaucrat is right -- and the loosefooter concurs with him in totality. For, this has been the argument the loosefooter, too, has been putting forward all along. Of course, the loosefooter’s grief is that the city does not have good leadership that has the right culture ethos to listen to people’s woes and effect necessary corrections. If this is not leadership-failure, then what is it ? It shows also that those who claim to be city’s leaders -- may be anybody -- have no mental frame to stand and listen to what the people have to say on critical issues of public importance. ‘The Hitavada’ has been bringing to fore various such issues that demonstrate leadership-failure in the city of Nagpur. Yet, the so-called leadership has no time to pause and understand what is actually ailing the city. In fact, as many leaders insist on public platforms, there is no dearth of money.

 

“If you have good idea, there is money,” a celebrated national leader (who is a resident of the city) often says. So, the city has money. But it does not have the right kind of leadership to be upfront of the developmental agenda and lead the process effectively and efficiently. On this count, our believed Nagpur often draws a blank -- no matter, then, the boastful statements of many people in positions of power. Let alone the loosefooter, any citizen can give dozens and dozens of examples of badly designed and executed projects in public infrastructure. But there is nobody in the leadership layer to pause and listen to the actual woes of the people. This is what the senior bureaucrat said in an extended conversation with the loosefooter last week. n