Indian political leaders Updated Novt08 By and large, Indian senior politicians come out as tired old men, intellectual lightweights, with poor communication or negotiating skills and little diplomatic flair. These don't come naturally to the Indian temperament. They lack the poise and persona, charisma, style, vitality, wit or sparkle; facial features seem glacial or embalmed; expression wooden or vacuous, manner charmless, witless, deadpan; accent, diction, pitch flawed; content banal; delivery laboured & humourless; they are used to rote-learning and then re-gurgitating stock material. They lack creativity and cannot generate fresh ideas or manipulate old ones. They tend to be humdrum, tedious; There is no native brilliance that excels at rational analysis or playing with abstract or complex themes. The leaders who have noticed in the West are those who studied there like Nehru, Manmohan Singh or Chidambaram. What they have learnt overseas, they tend to apply virtually unadapted to their homeland with very different material and cultural conditions. No wonder borrowed ideologies and institutions like democracy, parliament or liberalism are a misfit.  In speech, they have no new ideas to offer, no concrete proposals to make; they speak in less than fluent English in the West (unlike Brazil, China, Iran, Russia) and since their vocabulary and ideas are limited, they prefer not to stray from the prepared script. They cannot speak impromptu, improvise or compose variations on a set theme. They could get lost or out their depth. So they seek safety in generalities, stock phrases, buzzwords and a string of banalities. Poor at articulating or explaining policy or constructing a moral vision of the future. No commitment to ethics or high principle. Because they lack confidence and have little intelligent to contribute, they get deferential and self-deprecating before western leaders: - to act as equals and assert themselves; - to censure the West for historic injustices, military interventions, use of torture, etc - to engage in intelligent exchanges or propose new initiatives  They are forced to agree, smile, fawn and flatter before their hosts..   Indian leaders leave others to do the thinking while they deliver banalities, clichés & platitudes. The result is Indian leaders fail to inspire the respect they crave and there have been instances where the Indian foreign minister on a Moscow visit has not been received by his Russian counterpart and the Chinese President has refused to take the Indian PM's telephone call. Following the terror attacks on Mumbai 26-28 Nov 2008, the Wall Street Journal dismissed Indian leaders as 'weak-kneed' and with 'limited grasp of statecraft' (Nov 28, 2008) India's leaders "invariably swan around with armed guards paid for by the taxpayer" and can't even agree on a legal framework to keep the country safe. The country's anti-terrorism effort is reactive and episodic rather than proactive and sustained. Its public discourse on Islam oscillates between crude, anti-Muslim bigotry and mindless sympathy for Muslim grievances. Its failure to either charm or cow its Muslim neighbours reveals a limited grasp of statecraft". Example1: Indian PM abroad i) At Cambridge University (Aug 2005) PM Manmohan Singh thanked the British for gifting India the judiciary, police, rule of Law and the English language. ii) With President George Bush 27 Sep 2008: : “For 34 years, India has suffered from a nuclear apartheid. And when this restrictive regime ends, I think a great deal of credit will go to President Bush. When the history is written, I think it will be recorded that President George W. Bush played a historic role in bringing our two democracies closer to each other. And, for this I am very grateful to you, Mr. President… let me say ‘Thank you very much’. The people of India deeply love you.” Example 2: Return of the Kohinoor diamond Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, columnist for the  Independent asked (02 Mar 2000) Why haven’t Indians campaigned for the return for stolen colonial booty or a fair payment for it? Are we, former colonials, still locked in mental subjugation that we dared not ask? Kuldip Nayar, journalist and former Indian High Commissioner in Britain, has led the campaign for the return of the Kohinoor and had raised the issue before the Indian Finance  Minister Jaswant Singh (formerly Foreign Minister) but Singh declined to take up the matter on the ground that relations with Britain are good! (Asian Voice 12 Oct 2002)   Example 3: Presidential candidate talks to the spirits   NDTV (26 June 2007) reported that while President Abdul Kalam advocated the scientific spirit, Pratiba Patil (awaiting the title of President) was in communication with the spirits. She revealed; "I had a very happy experience... The Baba came into the body of Mohini Dadiji. I did ot know he still talks. But he had a chat with me... He made me very lucky."