Cometh the hour, cometh the redeemer. This sums up the mood of India 2013. Our newspapers and TV channels constantly remind us that anarchy has been let loose and the Centre has been unable to hold for at least a decade. True.Only a lunatic would deny that our republic suffers in grave crisis. For the past six months the prospect of picking up the newspaper for the citizen has become a nightmare . (I begin the morning ritual with the Delhi Times whose fun and frivolity suggest a semblance of normality — normality which prepares the reader for the grim news in the main paper.) Is it any surprise then that all around us the cry for a "strong leader" goes up with mounting force? Only he (a 'she' could emerge but that's another story) can rescue our nation with his firmness, rigour and capacity to punish the disobedient.In 1978 I wrote a biography of Sanjay Gandhi which has been reissued for the laughable sum of Rs 499 by HarperCollins. Sanjay was then recovering from the wounds of his Emergency exploits. Yet, during 1975 to 1977 he was pronounced as our redeemer, the strong one. Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai George Fernandes and others spreading "sedition" had been locked up by the strong one while he, sitting in his mother's house, had taken on the mantle of "extra-constitutional authority" . And in the words of Indira Gandhi had "made the trains run on time". That is before he subverted almost every democratic institution in the country. So, those over a certain age who are told that what India needs is a "strong leader" have some experience of the havoc such a leader can cause.I recount this cautionary tale as another strong one hovers over our national consciousness, and millions of urban middle class folk confidently believe that without him we are doomed. Why even that pipsqueak Rahul Gandhi could be presiding over our destiny! I make no value judgements since Mr Modi is perceived today as someone close to Lord Shiva — creator, preserver and destroyer.The strong leader, meanwhile, has three defining characteristics. One, he has a solution to every problem and the timeframe in which it can be solved is usually a few months. He is a loner. He works alone. There are no hangers on, no chamchas, no family. He is personally incorruptible. Naturally, he collects a few henchmen/ henchwomen to execute his orders. Finally, the strong one has minimal interest in means. He is concerned solely with things being done. Indeed, he does not wish to be bothered by means.Sanjay Gandhi was an exemplar of that approach. Once when he was demolishing slums with bulldozers in old Delhi and the residents were up in arms, he told a friend he was totally mystified by the protests. He was doing the slum dwellers a favour by pulling down their hovels and offering them alternate accommodation trans-Yamuna. Same with population control. Men who were being forcibly put on the operating table and having their 'indiri' (penis) cut off should send him flowers and sweets. The strong one then has simple solutions to not-so-simple issues.Is Narendra Modi Sanjay Gandhi? Am I presenting a caricature of a chief minister who by all accounts has a "strong" record? Am I pleading for weak and effete leadership, the kind we have today, and asserting that it may be better for the country to have incompetent and feckless leaders instead of those who are ruthless and assertive? Certainly not.I would go so far as to concede the desperate need today for strong leadership. What we see all around is monumental incompetence. Besides weekly scams, the UPA specialises in infantile cock-ups . The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and occasionally both the hands seem oblivious of each other's existence.But, but, but. Strong leadership of the Narendra Modi type has the tendency to descend into authoritarian oneman rule where the delicate checks and balances placed by our founding fathers are seen as a hindrance to good governance. Mr Modi, who is presently the champion of the corporates, has frequently expressed his frustration that "things do not move fast enough" for big business to prosper. The notion of inclusive growth under his dispensation may disappear.If the majority of our countrymen and countrywomen are so keen to see Narendra Modi sitting in 7, Race Course Road, we the sceptics should have the grace to fall in line. However, our guard must be up. Civil society, the media, the courts, need to remain vigilant and alert so that the strong leader does his job within the statute of democratic India. Strong leadership, yes. Extra-constitutional authority, no.