The change that India needs ...

Today, being 67th Indian Independence day, the day started with flag hoisting and Prime Minister's address to the nation from Red Fort, New Delhi. It was Dr. Manmohan Singh's 10th Independence day speech from that place. But there was something different today. To break the Prime Minister' monotone, Gujarat Chief Minister and probable BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, addressed the nation today from a lesser known place in Bhuj, Kutch. Yes, Narendra Modi addressed the "nation", the media played it live and was also followed by comments from political analysts.

Modi was on a visit to Indo-Pak border to meet Border Security Force (BSF) jawans in Bhuj, specially because of recent incidents of firing along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. He wisely chose to be there when he knew that the nation will be following him as takes on the prime minister in his address.

Modi, in his address, took Prime Minister head-on and all the points raised by him were relevant. He challenged the Prime Minister for an open debate on various topics of growth and governance. This is more seen as going the US way of fighting elections and is very much welcome in India. Though there were quite a few instances of war of words in media between NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani and UPA candidate Dr. Manmohan Singh during 2009 general elections, this challenge if taken up will be a direct debate and should be the way ahead.

What I see in Modi's speech is "change"! There was a touch, though feeble, of that of the US President Barack Obama's famous election speech on "change". Direct television debates, instead of cold war of words, is the way forward. It helps one to directly compare and choose their leader. Voting for the leader, as against the party, should be encouraged, though party's define the idealogy - I believe strong leadership is equally important. If idealogy is the backbone of the party, leadership is execution - which should undoubtedly be strong.

I believe, until now, Indian politics has been leadership driven. It is the leader that the people vote for. For good or bad reasons it was the face from Nehru-Gandhi family so far and not the Congress party that has won! But there were quite a few elections in which people voted for party - mostly third front came in power in those scenarios. In 2004, it was Sonia Gandhi who was the face, but Dr. Manmohan Singh was made the leader; 2009, according to me, was different - it was still Sonia Gandhi's leadership that Dr. Manmohan Singh won. Yeah, we should start giving credit to individuals rather than party as a whole.

UPA and Third front, if at all it comes into picture, should also declare their prime ministerial candidate much in advance. This is a small change - but much in lines of what is partly in practice already. So Dr. Manmohan Singh or whosoever is declared UPA's Prime Ministerial candidate, sportingly should accept Narendra Modi's challenge (assuming Modi to be NDA's candidate here) and jump into the arena!