CK Prahalad's lecture on "Sampoorna Azadi for India"

Sixty years of being a republic, sixty three years of being a free nation, but is India really free? Prof.  CK Prahalad, one of the most influential thinkers and strategists of our times, spoke at the Nani Palkhiwala Memorial Lecture in Mumbai on Jan 14, 2010. He spoke about the need for socio-political innovations that would change the landscape of India for good, and help it achieve its potential. The title of his lecture was : 'From Sampurna Swaraj to Sampurna Azadi: The Unfinished Agenda',

I agree with the professor that we miss Gandhiji's leadership in the current times.  His was a unifying leadership but today we lack leaders who can  "reinforce Indianness to the masses with clarity and force". What could be so Indian about us? The vibrancy of our existence, if I may say. 

Prof. Prahlad calculates that corruption costs India 2.5 crore. How he arrived at this number is noteworthy. He also cites key data regarding how wasteful our elections are. The 2009 Lok Sabha elections are reported to have cost the country Rs 10,000 crore. Of this, Rs 1,300 crore was spent by the Election Commission and Rs 700 crore by the Centre and state governments. The remaining Rs 8,000 crore were spent by political parties and individual candidates. So are we a poor nation? We are an unequal nation, we are driven by dirty politics and the we the people have to be responsible for cleaning the system. 

He talked about what we all know: need for education and electoral reforms, but what I found most impressive is that he advocated a shift of focus of policy and decision-making from minorities and special rights to on individual rights and meritocracy. Hence he gave a thumbs up to projects like UID, local governance and e-governance. I met professor after the lecture to congratulate him and he obliged for an autograph as well.