Wise and Gutsy after hanging the boots!

Katju, a person of great eminence was on the backfoot in the Times Now debate yesterday. Despite performing a commendable job in highlighting the impropriety committed in granting extension to a tainted high court judge of the Chennai court, the other two panelists were successful in pulling him down over the issue of his remaining mum, both while he was in active assignment and also for the over two years that elapsed since he hung up his boots.

His defense that he could not have gone beyond a point in expressing his resentment over the grave impropriety being committed right under his nose by the supreme authorities of the land obviously does not cut much ice. That his hands were tied by the compulsions of being an active judge and therefore not able to resist the mischievous actions of those in power is an argument that we often hear, especially from the bureaucrats who on similar lines grow wise and gutsy after retirement.

Is this, the conventional approach of being silent partners in crime the right course of action I wonder? Is permitting without a whimper, gross cases of misconduct under the garb of remaining within the ambit of the conduct rules applicable to government servants, the ethical way of doing things?

The answer is NO, yet almost all of us with exceptions of the likes of Khemka, Khairnar or Kiran, all with first names starting with the letter K, find it the most convenient and justifiable action that despite the voice of conscience saying otherwise, we absolve ourselves with throughout our lives. Incidentally Katju also belongs to the same variety and that makes me reverent of the alphabet K. 

Silent partners in crime with allegiance to powerful individuals and not to the government or the nation, is what almost all of us in the service of the government have emerged as. Rampant corruption and injustice therefore flourishes right under our noses and we tend to look elsewhere till at times we take a direct hit.

Is it not our duty to be truthful, honest and compassionate and at the same time put our foot down when someone else howsoever powerful he may be fleeces the nation by his misdemeanors. While our conscience that is an integral part of the almighty winces at all such acts, our intellect tempered by the everyday happenings of the society guides us otherwise in the garb of being practical for fear of retribution that may or may not come in the shape of a transfer or a spoiled confidential report. Is it not therefore a case of paying a very high price for avoiding a minor inconvenience?

This lack spine at crucial moments in our service career provides the wherewithal to powerful individuals to carry on with their acts of gross misconduct while at the same time remaining on the right side of the conduct rules framed for the servants of the government. This is the greatest irony of the so called service of the nation.

Any system or structure that regards an expose’ as a much bigger crime than the criminal deed itself would never be able to propel the nation to the league of developed countries. Any organization where the frank and free expression of its constituents is regarded as dissent worthy of grave retribution is bound to wither away with time. The functioning of organizations and states has to have its foundations on pillars of justice, justice that meets the voice of conscience not merely some rules and procedures written in books. Unless this realization dawns on the mandarins of the republic, we would forever remain occupied in a futile search for growth and development. 

Still a long way to the gallows!

The decision of the Delhi High Court upholding the death sentence imposed by the lower court against the convicts of the infamous Nirbhaya rape and murder case of December 2012 was on expected lines. After all the four butchers deserve no mercy and if at all there was any punishment higher than the death penalty it would have also met the cause. Yet there is still a long way to the gallows, an appeal in the apex court followed by a mercy petition to the President is apparently on the cards. Absolutely legal delaying tactics, yet I am convinced that ultimately the perpetrators of the heinous crime would indeed pay back by hanging.

Despite the huge national outcry that followed the ghastly crime and the awarding of the death penalty, rape is not yet off from the daily headlines. Perhaps the reality that the wheels of justice indeed grind slowly in this nation of ours gives enough hope and encouragement to criminals of all hues and shades to carry on with their activities unabated. After all justice is yet to be finally dispensed to the murderers of an ex prime minister of the country and it often appears that perhaps by a quirk of fate they may even escape the noose that they so rightfully deserve.

And therefore crime continues unabated. The retribution for the crime is available only through the judicial system of the country that is definitely fair yet agonizingly slow. And that leads a common citizen to wonder, often at times when he feels threatened, that it may indeed be better for the nation to follow the punishment systems of the middle-east or a developed and almost crime free nation like Singapore where swift and deterrent punishment has almost eliminated crime and ensured adherence to rules.   

And justice delayed is actually justice denied. Even within the bureaucratic machinery punishments for obvious and glaring cases of misconduct as well as malafide take years to settle. Perhaps it is a case of those who can make a change being beyond the system and hence never being able to really appreciate the need for introducing systems that are the need of the times. 

Misplaced compassion is also often a reason. Even the greatest of our religious books, the Gita does not condone misplaced compassion on the underserving. Arjuna who is moved by a bout of compassion when he witnesses his own men poised to fight one another on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, is counselled by the lord to do his duty and not be moved by misplaced compassion.  

“Chalta hai” typically defines our national attitude. Concern only for the self without realizing that our welfare lies only in the welfare of the society, is perhaps the bane of our social system. Sadly confining oneself within the general rules of the society is regarded as a sign of a person who has not really arrived, in total variance with the conduct one witnesses in developed societies. It is indeed sad and a sign of backwardness of our social structure that social hierarchy invariably plays a vital  role in interactions, whether it is between a traffic constable and a bureaucrat in a white ambassador or a man on a bicycle and one in a car.

“Rules are for Fools” and “Might is right” are two proverbs that I came across right at the beginning of my career almost thirty four years ago.  And what a fit they have been. Rules and processes are discarded or applied on a case to case basis to favor or disfavor. It is not like the developed world where yardsticks remain the same irrespective of the power or wealth at the disposal of the individual under consideration and the judicial systems dispense justice that is swift and deterrent. 

Perhaps it is all about being a developed nation or being one of the developing ones. Yet the transition would only happen if we move forward as there is absolutely no premium on standing still. 

Retribution at the holy Tihar

The death of Ram Singh within the precincts of the holy Tihar was perhaps the only death in recent times that brought smiles on the faces of many. Vicious it may sound but the fact remains that this news gladdened many hearts for the act of his suicide was perhaps the best retribution for the heinous crime that this animal had perpetrated. Maybe God intervened for want of a swift and just punishment for this heinous crime against the human race.

Mad dogs should be killed at the earliest and what better than the mad dog killing himself and in the process making it easy for the overburdened machinery. Perhaps ours must be the only country in the world where even an act of killing a top honcho or an attack on the parliament itself takes decades to be taken to the logical conclusion of punishing the perpetrator. Dispensation of justice is also perhaps as deeply tied in knots as development and education are and rightly so, we all hail from same societal structure, howsoever good or bad it may be.

The Nirbhaya case has displayed the extent to which a human being can be brutal, merely for satisfying his basic instinct. The extent of brutality perpetrated shocked not only the common man but also hard core criminals who throng the holy Tihar and regarded Ram Singh and his gang as the ultimate scum amongst scums. Newspaper reports at times highlighted the vicious treatment that the men of Tihar inflicted on all those who defiled humanity by the rape and brutal murder of Nirbhaya. To that extent the men of Tihar gained the appreciation of many of us.

The affected party in almost all instances has a different and perhaps an appropriate viewpoint, yet the rest of us impose our, the society’s viewpoint even if it may be contrary had we been directly affected. During an earlier tenure as the head honcho of a major sarkari setup, I had as always cracked down on sexual harassment within office premises and suspended and transferred the male in many cases without going through the motions of an enquiry. On being questioned by a union leader during a staff interaction, I agreed to enquiries in future provided the leader would also seek an enquiry and not demand direct action even if his daughter or wife was sexually harassed in the office she worked. He and all other armchair critics were thus suitably silenced.

I am also unable to appreciate the clamour of many arm chair enthusiasts for a humanitarian handling of the criminals who displayed animal instincts while violating the girl and worse still showed no remorse thereafter. That this is distinctly a behaviour definitely not worthy of mercy or condonation is not in doubt, yet statements seeking the protection of the juvenile interalia seeking legal rights to rape and murder by adolescents keep on doing the rounds amongst the intelligentsia. Such pseudo protectionism encourages criminal tendencies, a familiar scenario in the capital city that has juvenile act in force.

Why cannot we be like Singapore or Dubai, nations where criminals are treated like one and crime therefore makes extremely rare appearances. That sheer deterrence is indeed the remedy for such crimes is a fact that needs appreciation even amongst that section of the society that remains fairly insulated from all that affects the common citizens of the nation. It is also beyond doubt that all those who are in favour of a treating the juvenile with kids gloves and abolition of death penalty for even heinous crimes, would like a chameleon change their stance the day someone from their immediate family and friends goes through even a hundredth of what Nirbhaya experienced. 

Soft pedalling on issues and softer still on deliverance and economic growth has led our nation to such a pass that even miniscule nations cock their thumbs at us more often than acceptable, and the recent snub is a case in point. Gandhi, the father of the nation wanted to build an India based on the foundations of truth, value systems and character, yet nation building has perhaps remained the least of our concerns. 

Today morning enroute to my office I read a graffiti on an auto that said “Please don’t honk. The nation is sleeping”. How true, yet how sad!

Rampant organised extortion

Are only well established gangsters, settled in Karachi, Dubai and metropolises the real dons? Do only the “hafta seekers” in metropolises like Mumbai and Delhi, qualify to be called as the real extortionists? Yes it is true that they are extortionists and criminals whom the people fear and who deserve to be eliminated for the benefit of the society. But is it not true that many Governemnt offices, cutting across state boundaries, with exceptions off course, also act like extortionists? It is a nightmare for an ordinary citizen of this country to approach any governmental agency for getting an approval, registration, license etc. We are all aware of the harassment a simple citizen faces in getting a house registered, getting a driving license, getting a ration card, getting an electrical connection or even a life/death certificate from a government agency. Getting anything done from the Government system is a nightmare. Yet no senior government functionary, a politician or a bureaucrat would take sincere action to set things right as he remains thoroughly insulated from the malaise of the system and therefore has no stake. A common man, not a powerful government servant cannot get any job done within a government system without bribing a government functionary as well as massaging his ego. If you are an entrepreneur, be prepared to adequately take care of a battalion of extortionists under the garb of a variety of government functionaries who shall visit you or make you visit them with amazing regularity. It is as fact that every restaurant owner in the nation’s capital has to keep specified amounts in envelopes every month for the local police, the sales tax guy, collectors from the food department, the municipal authorities and many other leeches of various kinds. And Delhi is one city in India. Just imagine the extortion money only from restaurants. Try getting a gun or a bar license, without giving bribes. Try getting and then executing a big civil contract without being robbed of the fixed percentage. The list is endless. A corrupt breed of men in the garb of government functionaries on a perpetual extortion spree!

Yes there are exceptions. But one has to be either really lucky or really powerful or really rich to bump into one.

Come to think of it. While real extortionists, the official and licensed extortionists, the sarkari functionaries function under the safety of the law, under the garb of officialdom from their official chambers situated in official buildings. The masses look upon these extortionists with awe and pray that their children are able to occupy such seats of power when they grow up. This organized extortion is now an accepted practice with eyebrows being raised only if the extortion becomes unbearable. And the pack of jokers, the corrupt politicians and the officialdom alike who form the bulk of the system have the cheek to talk about development, values, integrity and the nation. Bullshit.