A while ago, Prime Minister Imran held a live Q/A session and some of his remarks agitated and aggrieved a certain segment of society. However, we need to focus our attention on another problematic line of thinking displayed by a caller who complained to Imran Khan about approaching IMF. The way the caller framed her grievance was more like a child complaining to her parents about their distressful behaviour and less like a rational voter holding a political agent to account for going back on his promises. The casting of state leaders into paternalistic role is neither new nor exclusive to Imran khan’s voter base. If anything, this attitude is rooted deep in our national psyche. We always seem to look to career politicians as our ‘redeemers’ who will solve our problems. This type of magical thinking have led us to believe that all we need to do is get the right person in the right position and then leave the rest to him. In our Bollywood-inspired localized fairy tale, the redeemer will then fight off bad guys, eradicate corruption, strengthen institutions and soon we’ll be on our way to fulfilling our destiny i.e. the newly minted hegemon of the … Continue reading Redeemer Complex