JOIN USThe year 2010 has been hit by major scams: Commonwealth Games and 2G Spectrum involving huge sums of money — more than a lakh crore of rupees. Now there is the Adarsh Housing Society being shamefully special in its own way: A housing society that was meant for the widows of Kargil war martyrs, has been usurped by high level politicians — chief ministers, ministers, top level defence officers including Generals and Admirals, and senior bureaucrats; none of the flats has gone to any Kargil widow. There is an apt phrase for such a despicable act: Baking rotis on the ‘chita’ (burning corpse).
Is this all the ‘quality’ of leadership that our society could produce in public life, civil service and even in defence? Indians already have a negative opinion of the ethical standards of their politicians; but what about the military officers who get selected only after gruelling tests and rigorous training and who are supposed to guard our country’s honour and integrity?
Also, the IAS and other central services are supposed have their own code of ethics. The guardians of our country seem to have turned into mean preying wolves. One wonders about the moral state of our society, because, after all, it is the society that throws up its leaders.
A cursory examination of the common man and his behaviour should throw light at the state of ethics in our everyday life. Indian society has been reduced to a mass of people out to grab anything and everything and find short-cuts to doing so. Let us look at the behaviour of our vehicle-owning class on the roads. We rarely ever follow lane discipline. If a small space is available, we try to outsmart the other guy by pushing the nose of our vehicle in. In this process of mutual prevention, no one goes faster; everyone gets delayed because of the jams. Some people fix blow-horns that can make the other commuters go deaf or use blinding headlights to get ahead.
In housing societies, a simple ethical sense should tell the residents not to make their dogs and other pets bog in the common areas such as the walking space; but, we invariably find owners of the pets violating this ethic. If there is a semi-open car park — say under the stilts — and the owner is absent for a few days, others park their vehicles in it with impunity. Owners of bungalows in cities like Bangalore build car parking spaces outside their compound thereby occupying the public road-space.
Large corporate houses, including famous IT companies, seem to provide insufficient parking space for their employees’ vehicles and turn a blind eye when the employees regularly park their vehicles on the roads adjacent to their offices. In effect, the companies have grabbed the public road space.
Law breakers
Let’s look at our queues at the counters; wherever possible, people break the line or even cleverly confuse everybody by forming multiple lines ultimately resulting in a huge melee. Being ‘clever’ is a greatly appreciated quality in our society. In fact, we many a time confuse cleverness with intelligence.
One of our superhit movies shows the heroes — students of a premier engineering college — resorting to tricks during the examination; the biggest hero in the movie even mixes up the answer-sheets so that the invigilating professor cannot catch him and his friends writing answers even after the exam bell goes off. Such cleverness is lapped up by our cine-going public. In another superhit movie, the heroine — studying medicine (God save us) — copies in her exam with the help of laser technology! Movies, many say, are a reflection of the society.
What is ‘corruption’? Grabbing land, flats, space, profits, incomes, admissions to schools/colleges, marks, honour (eg: state/national awards), even wages that do not rightfully belong to us. Corruption has at its core the thought and act of ‘selfishness’ at the cost of the others. A society/community has certain rules, laws, contracts and norms so that the larger good of the members of the society/community is served.
When selfish intent makes one violate these rules, laws and/or norms, it is termed corruption. When one does not do one’s wage-earning work honestly, one is violating the community’s contract. When an item is made or built below the stipulated quality, one is violating the norm. With lower quality, one may, at times, be endangering the health and lives of the users of that product or service. When one litters, spits or urinates publicly, one is violating the space that belongs to others. A corrupt person, when occupying top positions, gets opportunities to perform bigger corrupt acts or condones such acts.
So, if Indians are more selfish creatures and therefore more corrupt than many others in the world, why are they so? That requires delving deeper into the social history and social psychology of India and correcting those deep-seated tendencies through social transformation. Simple superficial administrative and legislative solutions will not work. There is no use having more laws and regulations for habitual law-breakers.
(The writer is a former professor at IIM, Bangalore)