ethics in governance is the need of the hour

The recent arrest of a Director level officer handling allotment of coaches was shocking for the nation, but not for many of those who throng its economic lifeline. Perhaps in his own assessment, the officer was merely doing what he thought was his birth-right, having seen at close quarters what many of his elk have been seen indulging into.

Mahesh Kumar through his act of attempting to buy his place into a seat of power and money achieved infamy as an icon of corruption. At that time many thought that the organization has seen its nadir and that the government would have no option other than stepping in to stem the rot. Unfortunately all such hopes were dashed when the sordid saga continued unabated with blatant and brazen acts of corruption being witnessed daily. In fact with time they picked up speed and those who were bracketed in the honest variety quietly slipped into the shadows.   

And the sordid acts continued – the side lining of a very senior and fine officer for the top job and his subsequent harassment, blatant dispensing of favours to contractors for consideration, making the office meet household requirements and gross abysmal conduct of those in high place. On the other  hand we also witnessed many being moved from the confines of their cozy homes to becoming jailbirds, notable being the case of two officers working in the censor board and IRCTC.

And then the toilet thing happened where a senior officer was shunted merely because he played the role of a custodian and refused to succumb to demands that smacked of gross unethical conduct.   

Even while the officer community was reeling under the shock of these expose, the coaching scandal burst on the scene with almost a vengeance. It appeared as if some were trying to outwit the other in looting the organization that gives us our daily bread.

The organization bleeds incessantly and the corrupt revel.

But should they be allowed to? Is it not the time for all those who have the interest of the organization uppermost in their mind to come forward and save it from the clutches of the corrupt? Is it not the time for the honest minority to say “this far and no further” and then act accordingly? Shouldn't the national interest take overriding priority over everything else, even at the cost of harm to oneself that may occur in the process?

The answer is “Yes”. The silent minority of the honest and the right minded should not allow itself to be swept away by the torrent of the corrupt and self-seekers.  

For the first time in the history of the nation we have a Prime Minister who is brutally honest and also extremely intense about his intent to pull the nation out of the abyss that it finds itself in. All of us have to be on his side, not merely seen to be so but by battling corruption and sloth in whatever territory we find ourselves to be. That indeed shall be the best homage to the land of the Mahatma.