In my native tongue, there is a saying that translates to there will be 7 people in the world who have striking resemblance. Though it doesn’t say what this resemblance is in, this urban myth has left me pondering over last few weeks. There are tons of theories doing rounds on the internet about weird coincidences. Once example of such physical resemblance is Enzo Ferrari – the founder of Ferrari and Mesut Ozil a German footballer with Turkish origins. Well unrelated people from different generations having striking resemblance is intriguing but having had about 108,760,543,791 humans born till date, the probability of 2 people looking alike can still be explained mathematically, if not with just paranormal reasons.

I have known these fun facts for years now, but what compelled me to write about it is that I have started pondering this with another concept called Parallel life. There is a book on this subject comparing how some famous people share a parallel life with another famous person and there was even a Korean movie made on this subject almost a decade ago. Now why can’t we apply similar logic to people in news now?

According to most main stream western media, sees India’s prime minister Narendr Modi as an equivalent of Trump. Since Modi has become the prime minister of India, the self proclaimed liberal media such as BBC and CNN always refer to him as a ‘Nationalist’, ‘Conservative’ and a ‘far’ Right person. Both have used the same slogan “India/America first”, both have been pro-majority. Trump has even used Modi’s catch-phrase for his campaign to entice Indian Americans. I do understand their misunderstanding. I dont want to dive deep into it as it needs a lot of explanation and deserves a separate post. Lets just say India is like an exception here and the fact that Modi panders to other world leaders despite them being authoritarian is just business. He just wants more foreign investment. So, According to me they are not at all similar. In fact, if you compare their lives, both are polar opposites in each and every criteria.

Since March 2020, all that anyone can talk or think about is the CoronaVirus and if you follow the News you will also wonder how the Government of the United States has managed to hit a new low in the management of this epidemic. If you had compare the life of the current American President to an Indian politician, I would choose the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Both Have had zero experience in governance before taking up their current jobs, they are what they are now only because of their fathers, both have a strong support base in bible wielding folk and the only achievements on their resume are either failed businesses or white collar crime law suits. As a matter of fact, they both down played the dangers of Covid=19 early on(one of them still continues to). One could even argue that they sort of had Parallel lives. But the resemblance ends there.

When if comes to handling the epidemic once they got past the phase of just denying it, the was passed on to the Chief Minister of Telangana. The more I think about it, the more I feel that the Indian Politician who first came to my mind when thinking of the American President was in fact not the correct match. Their circumstances of their rise to power might be similar but both are vastly different people. Now lets see how the POTUS went about his work of saving people.

First he said it was just a normal flu just like the Indian counter part who said that it would go away with one dose of Paracetamol. Then he and his administration kept heaping self-praise on how well they have been handling the situation and how everything is under control (they are doing it till date). Then they have said that the hospitals have enough beds, the doctors have more than enough medical supplies to deal with any number of patients while the ground reality was completely opposite. They tried to not to test dead bodies for Coronovirus just to keep the numbers low. Their explanation for increase in cases was that the testing has increased. Last but not least, they both blamed the spread of pandemic on others.

There is also a stark similarity in the way these both came to power. They did not have an agenda of sorts, it was fear mongering. The notion that outsiders are coming to steal our jobs. The state with highest Covid-19 infections in India is also a governed by the people with same ideology. They have been for years spreading the idea that every outsider is either a criminal or here to steal jobs. If you don’t have an agenda or intention to govern and only know to be divisive they remain in a bubble that the hatred for others among you base of supporters is sufficient to elect you, no matter what you do or more importantly ‘Not do’.

Crisis is the litmus test for leadership, it separates sheep from goats. Larger the crisis, more bigger and better are the leaders required to tackle them. Most of the actual leaders you must have come across in your life must have been ‘non’ leaders by their designations and positions. Leaders are those who other’s interests and welfare above theirs and are not afraid to take hard decisions. Leaders are those who do not keep their folk in dark and Leaders are those who admit when they make mistakes. The first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging its existence and these self centered ideological twins across the world are fighting to the best of their ability to turn a blind eye.

The problem here is either in your office or in your city/state/country, there is no test a person has to go through to become a leader. Though the corporate world wants you to believe that reading books and taking soft skills trainings can make anyone a leader, its absolute bullshit. About 4 years ago, there was a psychological evaluation done on each and every one of our team, which also included an anonymous 360 feedback/ I loved that training as it gave me insights into what people thought liked and disliked. This helped me become a better co-worker. I also later came to know that our management team had the same training before us and the results we pretty shocking to them and in a way very obvious to me. None of the our leadership team had any quality required for their role. I wish they did this analysis before they were given these jobs. I wish there is a psychological evaluation of every Managerial or Lead position. Because most of these people coast through their lives without having to deal with crisis, either because they are lucky or because someone below them saves their hide. But when a full blown epidemic like this hits the shores, there is no where to hide.