Saturday, May 19, 2012

All Hail Mayawati, Hail to thee, behenji of the North
All Hail Mamta, Hail to thee, didi of the East
All Hail Jaya, Hail to thee, amma of the South

For the uninitiated, Mayawati, Mamta and Jaya are/were the lady Chief Ministers of three large states in India - Uttar Pradesh in the north, West Bengal in the east and Tamil Nadu in the south. In their respective spheres of influence, they are regarded as sister (behenji), sister (didi) and mother (amma) respectively.

Besides enjoying huge public support at the peak of their popularity and staying unmarried, there is one more common thread that binds them - Narcissism. Our protagonists are in love with themselves and intolerant of any views to the contrary.

So what is Narcissism? The dictionary definition is: "Extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one's own talents and a craving for admiration". I came across this beautiful video which brings out this well known trait in our beloved Sherlock Holmes (this is the BBC version of Holmes, portraying the detective in modern age):

 

 The following have been listed as the characteristics:
  • Grandiose sense of self-importance
  • Belief of being special
  • Requires excessive admiration
  • Sense of entitlement
  • Interpersonally exploitive
  • Lacks empathy
  • Shows arrogant, haughty behaviours and attitudes
Our heroes of the day exhibit varying degrees of these traits. Mayawati has installed her own statue and statues of her party symbol - the elephant, at the cost of million of dollars to the taxpayer.
Mayawati and Elephant Statues
Mamta recently got a professor in her state arrested on charges of outraging the modesty of a woman. His crime: circulated a cartoon criticizing her of being dictatorial. You be the judge:
Does this cartoon outrage a woman's modesty??

Jaya came out with full page ads in leading national dailies just a few days back, to celebrate her one year in office at the cost of...you guessed it - the poor taxpayer.
Full page ad of Jaya in leading national dailies
What worries me is not that these ladies are in love with themselves, but how well they survive in a democracy. People, in spite of being aware of their idiosyncrasies, choose to elect and bring them back again and again.

Perhaps narcissism really is a pre-requisite for effective leadership. Personally, I find it obscene. But then my vote is just one among a billion others.

2 comments:

Vishal Bhardwaj said...

Self obsession of the kind seen in these leaders is also a manifestation of the general psyche of Indian masses, which has a adored grandness against simplicity. However Uttar Pradesh has already shown the door to Mayawati and preferred a simpler alternative.
As it is said "nothing is forever". narcissist leaders also give way to the other types.

Rakesh Varma said...

Any power creates narcissism in leaders by giving a environment of invincibility.These women leaders are example to those who say that women in India are depressed, another striking similarity among these three narcissistic women leaders is that all of them are single with no marriage.