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Opinion
Musharraf's Leadership by
Bluff
by Col.
Rahul K. Bhonsle
 Pervez
Musharraf, the President and Chief of the Pakistan Army, has provided us
a new model of leadership. Not for him the varied styles adopted by
leaders and distilled by scholars over the years; situational,
charismatic, participative or authoritative. He has devised his very own
headship style, leadership by bluff. The ideal example of this of course
is his recently released book, “In the line of Fire”. Having controlled
his men in uniform all these years and done in civilian leadership in
Pakistan suavely, did not satisfy the wily general. He now wanted to
display his style to the World at large and what better occasion then
releasing the book after the heads of state speech in the United Nations
General Assembly and before meeting the US President for a tete a tete.
Musharraf’s timing is masterly and that very respectable think tank, the
Council for Foreign Relations obliged the General by providing him an
appropriate venue for launch. This made his trip to New York and
Washington. The book of course will turn out to be a bestseller. The art
of writing a book is manipulation of the hyperbole and Musharraf ably
assisted by his ghost writer has achieved it very successfully. That in
later years it may be discarded to the dust bin of history may not
really bother the General, for at present he is savoring the tastes of a
successful winner.
Musharraf’s style of writing and his anecdotes reflect his personality.
Whether it is narrating his bomb making exploits in college or allusions
to India having helped itself of a clandestine nuclear network operated
by the enigmatic A Q Khan, it is the blunt statements of falsehoods
camouflaged in explosive revelations which ordinary men will cringe to
challenge even if they do not believe these to be true is what has made
his task easy.
His declaration that Kargil 1999 was a great victory is a part of this
great charade, waged to influence opinion at home, in a crucial forth
coming election year when there is nothing much to show, but for a deal
with the devil, the Taliban and the coffin of an octogenarian, Akbar
Bugti buried without the presence of his kith and kin. It is bluff at
its best, by declaring it in such a brash, blatantly untruthful manner,
he is sure that he will be able to carry the day through. The majors and
sergeants of the Pakistan Army his core constituency, a feudal, archaic
force whose forte once again is sham and bluster will be truly
impressed. The civilian leadership will soon follow suit and make him a
hero who has redeemed the nation from the jaws of defeat in Kargil, at
least by words if not by deed.
In the world where information is supreme especially in the field of
political polemics, Musharraf could well have won the day. But then his
balloon of falsehood has perhaps been stretched beyond the bounds of
reality and may burst due to excess gas or a pin prick. The outage in
Pakistan when he was in America was just one such indication, that all
may not be too well in the country. Who will call Musharraf’s bluff is
the question? Especially when he is relying on outrageousness to numb
his opponents.
The peril of writing memoirs is that the printed word is etched in the
impermanence of history. Thus any falsehood has a recriminatory reeling
for years if not centuries. What ever be its sales figures, one can
safely say at this juncture that, Musharraf’s, “Line of Fire” will
surely not out last Mahatma Gandhi’s “My Experiments with Truth”.
October 1,
2006
Top
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Opinion
The Week of October 1, 2006
Gandhi without blinkers: Follow the Mahatma – but
which one? by Rajinder Puri
Baluchistan Vs Pakistan by Ramesh Menon
Musharraf's Leadership by Bluff by Col. Rahul K.
Bhonsle
Mumbai 7/11 Train Bombings: Pakistan's
Involvement Proved by Dr. Subhash Kapila
A Legal Scam, Blessed by the SEC & FASB by
Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Mandate Minimum Agenda by J. Ajithkumar
A Killing Most Foul by Dr. Amitabh Mitra
Education in India is coming to Spectacular
Crossroads by Kusum Choppra
Death Lurks in White by VK Joshi
The Witty Side by Melvin Durai
Exercise may be Injurious to Health by
Neeta Lal
Baby Battles by Yvonne Barlow
Mother's Identity Crisis by Charumathi Supraja
Migrating in a Man's World by Nitin Jugran
Bahuguna
Battling Black Magic by Gagandeep Kaur
Theatre for Change by Marili Fernandez-Ilagan
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