Those who idle shall commit no
mistakes!
The news report reg CBI filing an
FIR into alleged improprieties in Air India’s purchase of software in 2011 came
as a shock. Shock because ostensibly as per the stand taken by the company as
well as its parent ministry, while there may be procedural lacunae, there is no
apparent malafide in this case. Perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye.
Regardless of the issue, such an
investigation is bound to hit the company hard as besides the pain of digging
out old papers, questioning of many including the innocent and the honest and
its attendant ramifications, it would further strengthen the belief that
following processes is important and deliverance can take a back seat. That
process overrides deliverance and merely following the laid down systems
guarantees personal safety is sadly becoming the norm in almost all
governmental organizations. Air India that has been a victim of gross
indecision in recent years and only lately had started to come out of its
slumber will also take a hit, I am absolutely certain, as an outcome of the unfortunate
turn that this case has now taken.
Whether the variety of watchdogs that the nation has have been able to reduce the levels of corruption is a matter of debate, yet the fact remains that they have been successful in stifling deliverance almost everywhere.
Having maintained highest standards
of integrity all my life, I am unable to appreciate the basic premise that we
require a non-executive to keep an eye on every single aspect of working of the
executive and that we should have checks and balances that are highly tilted in
favor of the checks. I also wonder how
mere non-adherence to a rule or process, howsoever silly though it may be, is
regarded as an act of malafide, sufficient enough to hound the hapless
executive for years, if not decades. And what hurts even more is that one
single incident of straying from the path, even if done in the overall interest
of the organization or the nation is sufficient to wipe out years of proven
deliverance. And then we lament that the organization does not perform!
The public sector is indeed the
favorite whipping boy of the media, a media that makes or mars public opinion.
A single news item like that of today would have made many think and also
perhaps believe that the national carrier is neck deep in corruption, even
though that is far from reality. The omnipresent shadow of vigilance and other
more powerful investigative agencies over the minutest processes undertaken by
the executive is one single factor that has caused the maximum damage to the
public sector in our nation. Commercial organizations need to be swift in
decision making processes, especially the ones that face competition from the
private sector, but how the hell and also why the hell would an executive take
a decision if he knows that it would be dissected in hindsight, motives would
be ascribed even where there are none and he may even face a life of ignominy for
a long time later, if the investigative agencies so desire. Is the risk really
worth it ask many, and the universal answer is “No” and mediocre performance therefore
continues to rule the roost, with many of those on the sidelines continuing to
wonder and also treatise on why we are unable to deliver.
At a time when we have a Prime
Minister totally committed to pulling the country out of the morass it has found
itself in after almost six decades of failed governance, it is sad that we also
have a machinery that believes in an overload of checks and generally regards officials
as dishonest unless proven otherwise. Mistrust was indeed at the core of the
decision making processes that we inherited from the british and rightly so :
they were ruling over a nation other than theirs, but why should the same
system continue when men are governing a nation of their own elk, is what is
often difficult to comprehend. Mistrust has indeed continued for far too long
under the garb of “checks and balances” and transparency, with its attendant
damages that are visible almost anywhere.
When errors or mistakes are
regarded as a malafide, best is not to commit them. And the only way that is possible is by not taking any decisions. This is the learning that has emerged over time and successfully assimilated by a large majority of those who are a part of the system. And surprisingly many still wonder
why progress is not commensurate with the effort and also the desire. Continuing to be fooled by a beehive of activity while remaining oblivious to the
fact that remaining busy, is by no stretch of imagination akin to deliverance has also emerged as a hallmark of the rotten system.
Yet the silver lining remains that still
there are many who would continue to trod along, regardless of the price they may
have to pay later. Perhaps the inner peace and satisfaction that deliverance
brings in its wake still finds takers.
Amen!