Another question that needs to be viewed in proper perspective is the problem of leadership of the movement. For the last two decades a large measure of this had to come from the Government. While such governmental leadership may be advantageous to the movement in its early days, the movement cannot continue to depend on it for ever. As the idea of cooperation grows and gathers momentum, the degree of governmental leadership would decline. A successful cooperative movement must be in a position to throw up natural leadership from amongst successful cooperators. This is as it should be in any voluntary movement, be it economic or social. The governmental effort in the ultimate analysis will be restricted only to making institutional arrangements and establishing check points, so that the trust and confidence of the cooperators is not abused by those in whom it is reposed. This process of change of leadership needs to be brought about as early as possible. On one particular point a greater degree of alertness will have to be shown, and this is to see that in the changed context this leadership does not itself become a hereditary privilege. Normally, the action to prevent such a possibility lies in greater education and enlightenment of the people. However, the Government cannot and should not remain passive spectators when the leadership becomes a question of inheritance. It should be our constant effort to see that the leadership of the movement does not remain restricted to a group of people for whom social status was a passport to leadership in the bygone days of tradition-bound society.
The third facet of the cooperative movement is its impact on the political life of the country. Ideally speaking, the movement should generate a feeling of more and more equality among the people and draw them into the mainstream of nation's political and social life. Even today, the movement, wherever its impact has been powerful, has become a parallel power centre in addition to the two centres of political power, namely, the State Government and Panchayati Raj.
