By Rajiv Shah
An email alert to me from a top ex-IAS bureaucrat, termed as Gujarat’s turnaround man for revamping loss-making state public sector undertakings (PSUs), has sought to take a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark on the Yoga day – that the ancient Indian exercise provides an “infinite solutions” within ourselves, offering “the biggest source of energy in the universe.”The email alert by Alexander K Luke insists, “Actually, no. The sun is the biggest source of energy in our solar system. Other more distant stars emit more energy…” Wondering whether Modi meant by energy “human motivation, the unending desire to do something constructive and bring it to a conclusion”, he tells in a tweet Modi, “Modiji, it is not energy we need but human motivation...”
Known to have resigned from the IAS in November 2006, when he served as managing-director, Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals (GSFC), which he had just turned around, Luke further tells Modi, “You cannot motivate intelligent human beings by threats, fear and greed, you have to appeal to their self worth...”
A 1975 batch Gujarat cadre bureaucrat, Luke was given negative confidential report by Modi despite turning around GSFC even after a top industrialist compared him with Lee Iacocca, who had turned around Chrysler, and Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad took a case study on how he managed to “save” GSFC. Currently, he lives in Kerala, his home state.
Pointing out that this is a major reason why Modi, who rode to power in 2014 by showcasing Gujarat model, “created” by turning around state PSUs, is today unable to achieve success, Luke also seeks to take a dig a some “journalists”, who are known to have asked him: “Sir, Apko itni energy kahan se ati hai, roj 18 ghante kaam karne ki?” (Sir, how do you get so much energy for work for 18 hours a day?).
He appears to reply back, “As we Indians are not privy to his daily schedule, this may be treated as mere conjecture. Modiji himself has never claimed he works 18 hours daily”, adding, somewhat sarcastically, “He does work hard, and we see him on our screen doing so, mainly announcing some new scheme for our benefit and telling us how much India is ahead of other nations.”
Luke’s tweets, he is no a “worshipper at any altar”, yet he claims, his life actions follow “Krishna's sermon to Arjun, this makes us aware of our own cowardice”, which he calls “the voice of truth, truth which has lived through thousands of years and whispers to all of us, even now... It will continue to guide us if we but choose to listen.”
And what does he mean by “truth”? To quote him again from this tweets, recalling how he revived Gujarat PSUs – Sardar Sarovar, Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL), GSFC, he says, he did this by overcoming “the obstacles” in ensured that they rode to “glory.” He regrets, however, “This was a truth suppressed in 1996, 1998 and 2003. But it was a truth.”
And what does he mean by “truth”? To quote him again from this tweets, recalling how he revived Gujarat PSUs – Sardar Sarovar, Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL), GSFC, he says, he did this by overcoming “the obstacles” in ensured that they rode to “glory.” He regrets, however, “This was a truth suppressed in 1996, 1998 and 2003. But it was a truth.”
Luke continues: “I was fortified with truth. Courage comes only if you have truth by your side. Seeking the truth, courage will come as a bi-product… Without truth you will never have courage, without courage you will never revive great PSUs...” He adds, “Truth is not mysticism, religion, high philosophy, or andar ki atma ki awaz, or any such thing. It is not memory's searchlight into the past. It is material reality, the objective situation prevailing today.”
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