Importance of Margdarshak Mandal

My Twitter timeline was recently inundated with the hashtag "margdarshak". Among the few bold announcements that Amit Shah, the new BJP president, made, one was to form an elite circle of the BJP’s wisest and tallest leaders.

He called it the "Margdarshak Mandal".

You can imagine what followed next. All those Indians “worthy of being dispatched to Pakistan” immediately started hallucinating about a rift within the BJP. They began peddling their wishful thinking as informed analysis. They said Advani and Joshi have been snubbed by the party leadership. And in hushed tones they even said that Margdarshak Mandal is now the new political Kaala Paani.

I mean, seriously?

There’s a limit to what conspiracy theorists float. They make Margdarshak Mandal sound like some Gulag where unwanted leaders are hustled to. This is exactly the mindset that makes teaching and mentoring professions unglamorous.

For one, somebody had the sagacity to utilise the wisdom of our septuagenarian and octogenarian leaders and rescue them from a life of oblivion and Raj Bhawans. Does anyone even remember Buta Singh? Balram Jakhar? In fact, I say even Motilal Vora would have been forgotten post the election rout if it were not for the National Herald scam.

Amit Shah with one graceful and deft move has saved and archived the wisdom of these ageing leaders. He exalted their political careers to such a level that now there is no pressure on them to ever walk out in a glorious sulk. But most importantly, Amit Shah restored the high status of the art of mentoring, and revived the promise of immortality.

Just browse our recorded history - and I am sure Dina Nath Batraji can confirm this - who do you think is the fountainhead of mentoring? The chief Margdarshak Lord Krishna himself. What better compliment Shah could have given these wise leaders. To say he snubbed them demonstrates shallow understanding of our history and "parampara".

If Shah was indeed sending “unwanted” people to the Margdarshak Mandal, then should not all those Indians “worthy of being dispatched to Pakistan” also be a part of it?

The PM furthered this very good work of Mr Shah when addressing the kids on the Teachers' Day. He reminded the importance of a teacher, a mentor to the country.

Perhaps, Shah took a cue from his friends in the corporate world which set this wonderful template. CII and Infosys already have “Chief Mentor” designations. Shah with some clever social engineering has imported it into our politics.

We should capitalise on this invention and extend this concept to every aspect of our society. Every organisation, be it a corporate, NGO, political party, charity organisation and trust, registered society, even RWAs and fan clubs should have a Margdarshak Mandal.

We’d soon have people we’ve idolised stop retiring and milling around us as Margdarshak CEOs, Margdarshak Editors, Margdarshak Pramukhs, Margdarshak Captains, Margdarshak Kavis and Lekhaks, Margdarshak Generals and Admirals, Margdarshak Doctors and Engineers, Margdarshak Civil Servants, Margdarshak Clerks and Karamcharis, and even Margdarshak Uncles and Aunties in the neighbourhood parks.

In fact we may even adopt the Iranian model and, like Ayatollah Khamenei, have a Supreme Spiritual Leader or the Pramukh Margdarshak for our country.

I am reminded of another Jataka tale here. Long ago, about 400 monks took leave of their great teacher and left for Banaras to spend their vacation there. The king of Banaras played a gracious host to them, fed them well but then thought their ascetic life deprived them of gifts like wine. He must make their stay special and treat them with wine. But the monks went berserk on tasting wine. They drank themselves to utter embarrassment and banality. And, when they come to their senses, their takeaway was that the great teacher’s absence made them behave like unbridled monkeys.

The Margdarshak Mandal idea gets a clean chit. It will save a whole new generation of the BJP leaders from behaving like monkeys and float banal theories like human excreta causes floods.

Great nations are built on mentoring and not bickering.