I was attending the quarterly meeting of a national body as a representative of Chandigarh Chapter. There were about 20 members representing fourteen other chapters and a few were from the head office. I was feeling a bit bad since the point we had sent from Chandigarh chapter had not been included as Agenda. Thus when the listed agenda was over and the last point ‘Any other point with the permission of the Chair’ was read out, I instantly raised my hand.
As the President gave me the permission to go ahead, I introduced myself and said, ‘Sir, our branch proposes to start an annual event for school children ….’ Before I could complete my sentence, there were a few voices opposing the proposal on the premise that the Society should have nothing to do with the students. I could understand and in fact feel the heat as Chandigarh branch had been doing extremely well in promoting the cause, had won the best Branch trophy the previous year and thus was a sore in the eyes of many other branches of the Institution across the country.
President could sense the mood, raised his hand to quieten the loud murmurs that had been going on and told me, ‘Please brief us about your proposal. You have two minutes.’ I took just thirty seconds to say, ‘Sir in the next 10 years or so, all of us sitting here would no more be working for the cause of aviation and space. It will be the students of today who would be occupying these chairs. So It is the need of the hour to initiate them in this field.’
Probably impressed by my brevity, the President asked me to spell out the proposal, and I was given five minutes. I had carried a power-point presentation of just four minutes, hoping that such a situation might arise. I made my presentation about starting an annual All India ‘Aero-Space Olympiad’ in which 20 teams selected from across the country, would be participating in a 3-days residential program.’
As I sat down, there was a lot of discussion, mostly against the proposal. The President listened patiently for about ten minutes and then said, ‘Let’s have voting. I am in favour of the project. Anyone against, please raise your hands and the Secretary will do the count.’ Nor a single hand went up. And then he asked me, ‘Where from will you get the funds of Rs three lakh?’ My simple reply, ‘Sir I would seek your help to generate the funds.’
‘No, I can’t do your job. But yes, I will sanction Rs fifty thousand as one time grant for the event. I wish Chandigarh branch all the success,’ he said. In the coming months, the funds were raised, and the event was conducted. It was a great success. It was held for ten consecutive years, till I withdrew on some moral grounds and the event never happened thereafter.
It was on that day of the meeting, almost two decades back, when I learnt an excellent lesson in leadership, democracy, and diplomacy. I learnt that leadership is not about having everyone agree with you, it is about listening to dissent; an essential part of democracy and being diplomat enough to handle opposition without confronting.
Wg Cdr DP Sabharwal,
