It was 1966, Mao Tse Tung was presiding over a function in Beijing during cultural revolution celebration week when our ambassador attending that function noted that one of his shoes was quite worn out mended at various places by the cobbler .When the function ended he jokingly asked a member of the Chinese communist party present on the occasion that after all you are not that poor they you could not afford buying a new pair of shoes for your chairman to which he replied that no this wasn’t the case The fact of the matter was that Mao was on a visit to a factory in Beijing a year back where he noticed that a majority of labourers were working there bare footed On his query as to why were they not wearing shoes they told him that they cannot afford buying them due to their poverty on which the Chinese leader said if this is the matter then I too won’t buy new shoes till every Chinese could afford buying it for himself so whenever his shoes wears at some place we get it mended by a cobbler.
When our ambassador to North Vietnam went to present his letter of credentials in Hanoi to the then North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minhi he found that the furniture lying in his office was made of cheap bamboo wood.
Both of these ambassadors had mentioned these anecdotes in their books ,The reason why I mentioned them is that only those leaders live in the heart of their countrymen who don’t live beyond their means and cut their coat according to the size of the cloth. Both these leaders are respected throughout the world for their love for the common man and their struggle to usher in a classless society and end economic exploitation of the masses by greedy capitalists. Even today they are looked upon by the have-nots of the world as their role model in their struggle to usher in a exploitation – free society in their respective countries. Thousands of tourists from across the world visit a great Hall in Beijing to have a glimpse of the nummy of Mao Tse Tung lying there and pay homage to that great leader who laid the foundation of a country in 1949!which today can hold a candle to the US in every walk of life.
