<div>Do you know who I am?” asks the irate passenger who expects to be accommodated for his late arrival at the check-in counter. The ‘I’ in the statement is clearly important. It should terrify anyone into submission. The person who says this has experienced privileges. His belief has been reinforced in the past, and it is now shamelessly second nature. The arrogance is matter of fact. It has surely worked in the past. He has got what he wanted. Out of turn.</div><div> </div><div>Privileges are known to be bestowed on people. It comes with position and power. The greater the power, the greater the privilege. It creates its own zones of exclusiveness and the ‘rest’ live quietly with it, grumbling usually under their breath. But here is a situation that suggests a kind of immunity that is far from exclusive. It is not just a single authority that bestows the privilege, there are multiple, ‘non-official’ authorities, spread out through the length and breadth of the country. There are all kinds of leaders, each with his own power base, who directly or indirectly confer the right to immunity and special privilege. </div><div> </div><div>Examples abound: passports, water connections, mining rights, taking over public spaces, yada yada. An everyday example is the use of mobile phone when a plane is taking off, or even at a theater or in a meeting. People embody the notion that the stated rule ‘does not apply to me’. There is an inner reference group that says it is okay. That viewpoint is backed by a power that can do what it wants, regardless.</div><div> </div><div>India works on real or perceived connections. If you expect a fair and level playing field, forget about it. It is as if the country is composed of numerous small oligarchs, with their own closed circuits of rank and power. On the one side is the government with its so called public mandate of power. And alongside are the much smaller sources of real power. They exist at the street corner level or the locality or the slum or any such small self-proclaimed units.</div><div> </div><div>Those who are part of these myriad oligarchies are well aware that they will get what they want. This gives them confidence. They also own or take over all the resources. There is a tacit understanding that “we take care of our own”, which includes a fairly spread out circle of connections. It is the psychology of gangs.</div><div> </div><div>When Madhur’s brother, Mayank, is unable to get the b-school admission because of his having been in a ‘vernacular’ college, the issues are similar. The word itself, ‘vernacular’, harks back to the varna system and its link with caste. Caste was pre-eminently about privilege. </div><div> </div><div>In this case you see two sides of the power equation: on the one hand is the boorish man at the check-in counter who believes, not without some truth, he has the right and privilege to over-ride the authority of the staff on duty. He has the confidence and shamelessness of one who knows he will be supported. On the other hand, you see Mayank who has also been, in a manner of speaking, stopped in his tracks. But he doesn’t have the connections to do anything about it, unless he decides to enroll himself in one of the multiple oligarchies that abound. What choice does he have? How does he survive such a system? Mayank just becomes one more to have fallen by the wayside. </div><div> </div><div>How can the individual himself be determined enough to not feel disappointed, begrudged and wounded. Can every person who has been insulted like this and treated unfairly, simply pick himself up and dust off the pain? Will the parallel governance of the oligarchies keep getting stronger and stronger? </div><div> </div><div>This parallel process can only be dealt with if those leaders in actual positions of power, the ones who have been conferred an office, a rank, an authority, step up and live the responsibility they have been given. It is only when these leaders are unable to provide the level playing field, that is, create conditions for fairness, that the alternative power bases kick in and start to take over, gradually getting stronger and stronger. It feeds on weakness of the prevailing system. </div><div> </div><div>If the duty manager and the officials of the airlines were to whole heartedly back the check-in counter staff, it would give huge confidence to them. The more confidence they have, the less they can be pushed around by those supported by the ‘powerful’. People like Madhur need to be celebrated for their courage but also gently reminded that losing one’s temper is definitely not the answer.</div><div> </div><div>If there was a functioning authority that could redress the blatant biases of the workplace, such as the rejection of Mayank on grounds of being from a vernacular college, then some confidence and strength can come into those pushed around. However, if that doesn’t happen, progressively the distorted perceptions, the biases, indeed the self-proclaimed oligarchies will become the leaders of tomorrow. Perhaps they have already!</div><div> </div><div><em>The author is at the Asia Pacific office of the Center for Creative Leadership</em></div><div> </div><div>(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 05-11-2012)</div>
