Birds on the Brain

He quoted a Republican president—Abraham Lincoln.

‘I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.’

It was profoundly moving because it’s been a long long time since I heard a politician admit to anything like that. George W. Bush famously said he had no sleepless nights over Iraq and that he could not think of one thing he had any regrets for. Over here, whether it’s Narendra Modi or Mamata Banerjee political leadership seems all about projecting that you are always indisputably right and that soul-searching is for weaklings…When he looked at his audience and said “I’m hopeful because of you” he did something remarkable that few politicians do. Instead of selling hope to his people, he drew on hope from them. Kiran Bedi is right when she says Obama’s speech should be shown to our PM and his cabinet. But it should be shown to all politicians not for the clarity of communication or its rhetorical flourish. It should be shown because whether you like him or not, he has shown that humility, fallibility and leadership are not incompatible.