The Prejudiced Drona of the 21st Century

An important character in the Mahabharata is Drona, who is rarely assessed, not even to the extent of his son Ashwatthama, who is believed to be alive to this day, enduring the trials of deathlessness, awaiting Shri Hari's return.

Drona, the son of the great Rishi Bharadwaj, held an exalted status among the sons of Kuru and Pandu and is revered throughout the Indosphere as their preceptor of martial arts. However, like many character arcs in the Mahabharata, Drona possessed his share of darker grey shades. He is accused of favouritism, particularly for his affinity for Arjuna and his antipathy toward Eklavya. When the cousins began to distance themselves, he did little to mend their differences. He had an ulterior motive for not stopping the humiliation of Draupadi at the hands of Duryodhana and the Kauravas. He supported his biases by fighting against his mentees, the Pandavas, and siding with the Kauravas. During the war, he did not prevent the treacherous murder of Abhimanyu on the battlefield. Because of these malfeasances, which are unbecoming of an Acharya, Drona evokes more scorn than sympathy even to this day. Nevertheless, the Drona Complex, encompassing all the emotional fixations that Drona harboured in his mind, continues to this day.

During the 20th century, when physical colonialism began receding, when many economies began booming, resilient nations vowed to achieve prosperity by tapping into young talent, regardless of the economic sectors to which they belonged, and by helping them participate in the startup revolution. University classrooms and academic and government labs began emphasising the criticality of converting ideas, taking them through the whole technology life cycle, and seeing them culminate as commercialised technology. To ensure that resilient nations benefit from both products and services, as well as positive social narratives, they established a network of facilitating entities.

Any headhunter, whether public or private, can do only so much to identify the academic qualifications they seek from employees of these facilitating entities. However, very few will monitor behavioural attributes. Ideally, facilitators working on behalf of state administration should be agnostic, unbiased, and free of vested interests. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Quite a few private facilitators empanelled by the government, as well as government employees acting as facilitators, tend to develop favourites, make biased decisions, and cultivate vested interests. The Drona Complex afflicts many of these facilitators, whose minds are clouded by messianic sentiments, believing themselves to be the benefactors of the startup ecosystem, thinking that nothing would regress or progress without them. Just as Drona requested Eklavya's thumb, they would demand an eliminating pound of flesh; just as Drona expected half of Drupada’s wealth, they would work in anticipation of a gain; just as Drona conspired to humiliate Drupada by participating in the disrobing of his daughter Draupadi, they too would conspire similarly; just as Drona did not prevent infighting among those he trained, many in facilitating positions would do so when cornered.

Drona is a guru to his pupils, yet no one to date has regarded him as a sage or rishi. The issue lies not in Drona's struggles and unrestrained ambitions but in the Kuru realms that enlisted him. Imagine if a morally upright guru had blessed the cousin’s lives, and the great war would have been prevented. In today’s context, startups resemble the young, unrefined, and naive Kauravas and Pandavas. For them to truly bring a constructive change in the world, they would need a guru, even with a few attributes of gurus like Maharishi Vashistha of Shri Ram or Rishi Sandipani of Shri Krishna to ensure that new entrepreneurs develop into aware and elevated individuals, cognisant of their roles for the greater good. A guru like Drona, as described in the Mahabharata, despite being capable, is a powder keg, and they need to be chosen carefully and monitored carefully.

The world today is facing a surge of dual-use innovations that can serve as agents of mass disruption and destruction. Many modern-day facilitators can assess the commercial value proposition of technology, yet few forecast the risks involved and intervene in time for their subjects, clients, or mentees, as well as those on the opposing side, in a world where regulation serves merely as gatekeeping rather than making tough decisions. When Drona-like personalities prevail, numerous enterprises will receive enormous institutional backing and commit acts without hesitation or fear of the law or their reputation, usurping, stealing, and eliminating. These Drona-like facilitators instill their Messianic Complex in their entrepreneurs, potentially creating Frankensteins and Duryodhanas. With Drona-like facilitators present, the Pandavas will continue to lose at the game of dice. At the same time, the Kauravas will maliciously prevail in the rigged game, making them vulnerable to invoking Shri Hari to return and reset.

(Dr. Chaitanya Giri is a Space and Emerging Technology Fellow at the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology, Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai.)