Real Leadership & Politics

I recently listened to The Nikhil Kamath Podcast featuring the author and economist Ruchir Sharma. It gave me many great perspectives on how money flows, how trade shapes nations, and how economics influences politics. But there was one bigger insight that truly stuck with me — and when I thought deeper about it, I realized it might be the only way forward.

I’m not very deep into politics, and I accept that politics is a dirty business. It doesn’t get better just by supporting one party, and it doesn’t get better by constantly switching sides either. Good leaders are rare but real, and they bring change to many great states.

I often see people, online or in person, discussing or ranting about what their party did and what the other party didn’t. Most of these conversations revolve around free subsidies, free ration, free bus rides for women, or other “free” schemes. Sometimes it’s about changes in education syllabuses or tabs given to students. But I rarely hear anyone talk about expanding better roads, infrastructure, or the real foundation of a better lifestyle — employment.

People are wired to get addicted to the idea of “FREE,” and they don’t realize that a real lifestyle begins with better employment, better transportation, and better infrastructure. Eventually, everything they’re chasing will follow.

Take any state. Suppose they have a capital city, but instead of developing it fully, they spend more money on free subsidies, pensions, free buses, and tabs for children, while investing little in port development, roads, or city expansion. This creates a static society where people don’t try to improve their lifestyle or progress. Young people stay unemployed and fall into addictions; a few rich brats leave the state to study and work elsewhere; many go overseas for education and never come back. By giving things free, you make people dependent — you make them believe this is the only way.

Now consider another state that focuses less on freebies and more on expansion. They build better roads, world-class infrastructure that attracts tourists and foreign investors, and they invite tech companies to set up offices. Hundreds of companies make that capital their home, and lakhs of people travel there to work. With more people and higher salaries, demand grows for PGs, hostels, food stalls, hotels, restaurants, and travel services. Even if many workers are migrants, the local population feels inspired to educate themselves and work harder. Small businesses emerge, and employment rises naturally.

Better roads also boost rural tourism, doubling business for rural areas. When migrant intellectuals question bad policies publicly, media attention forces the government to act. The state improves because people care and speak up.

So who is the real leader among these two examples?
The one who handed out freebies and stagnated progress under the mask of change — or the one who pushed people to build, work, and grow by creating world-class infrastructure and expanding the capital?

This is a real question worth asking.