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Good morning. Many of us are still coming to terms with Azeem Rafiq's deeply emotional testimony to the DCMS Select Committee. It was a harrowing and damning indictment of racism within the world of cricket and it was clear in his interview on this programme yesterday that his fight to ensure that the truth was heard has come at a high personal cost. Azeem has himself admitted using racist language in the past, saying that he was 鈥渄eeply ashamed鈥 and could offer no excuse. In facing up to his mistakes, he鈥檚 shown courage, and in speaking out, he has shown the impact of moral leadership against the odds. Be it at work or in wider society, speaking out against injustice can be incredibly difficult. How do you challenge those in authority or more powerful than yourself? And how can one individual create change in the face of relentless opposition? For Sikhs around the world marking Guru Nanak鈥檚 birth anniversary today, the problems he encountered five centuries ago will seem all too familiar to us in the modern world. Discrimination was rife in his own lifetime. During one of his travels, he and his trusted friend Mardana found themselves at the foot of a hill in what is now northern Pakistan. Locals gathered around the Guru as he spoke of his teachings, and the crowds grew over the next few days. At the top of the hill was a holy man who had the only source of water to the area, and seeing that people were flocking to Guru Nanak, he punished locals by stopping access to the source to anyone not devoted to him. Some went to the holy man, asking for the water to flow freely once again, to which he replied 鈥淚f your Guru is so important, ask him to give you water.鈥 The locals told the Guru of their plight, and he sent Mardana several times to speak to the holy man, but the response remained the same. After dialogue had failed, the Guru pushed aside a large rock lying at the foot of the hill and a spring of water emerged. The holy man realised he had lost, and in a fit of pure rage rolled a boulder down the side of the hill with the aim of killing the Guru. According to legend, Guru Nanak stopped the boulder with his hand. The holy man finally realised his errors, apologised for his actions, and became a devotee of Guru Nanak. Leadership is so much more than being the most powerful person in the room. It鈥檚 about being able to take brave steps, calling out injustices when they arise, taking full responsibility for your own actions, and defending the rights of others, even if it means putting yourself in the line of fire. As Sikhs gather to remember Guru Nanak鈥檚 life, a life which showed that radical change never comes from maintaining the status quo, we are reminded that whilst qualities of true leadership may sometimes seem rare in the present day, when you encounter them, like we did this week, it can be profound.
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