The anatomy of corruption

The recent case of harassment of a director level officer by an officer of secretary level simply because the junior played the role of a custodian of government property to the hilt, indicates the level to which ethics in public life have nose-dived. Yet the essential difference that I have witnessed in this case as compared to scenarios two or maybe three decades earlier is in the highly elevated level of brazenness of the corrupt. “Chori and Seenajori” has indeed become the order of the day. It is also true that there has been a sharp decline in the morals and ethics of the society at large leading to a scenario where the service of the government has degenerated to service of the self. Any young entrant to services would easily testify to this ground reality.

The last ten years have set new milestones in the national race for amassing ill-gotten wealth and the servants of the governments have been generally leading the race. The veracity of this statement can be checked by interacting with any sector of the sarkar, strictly as a common citizen. Invariably every single of such interactions is laced with graft.

Yet the new dispensation at the centre gives hope. But it warrants critical appreciation that raising ethical levels of over a billion citizens would be far more complex and difficult than merely injecting a stiff dose of integrity amongst the few million of those who misgovern, often for personal gains. Beginning with the tantra therefore seems the most sensible and logical course to follow.

Total absence of a nationalistic fervour has been the hallmark of the indian society, except for the period when independence from the british was being actively sought. This has led to a scenario where personal good has assumed overriding priority over the general good without realizing the pitfalls of such a thought process.

And within the Sarkar, the inability of individuals at large to be able to make a meaningful difference leads to scant self-respect and therefore the spate of efforts at other means of self-gratification that merely give material comfort. And the failure to realize that a material high is far lower than a spiritual high is not exactly a direct fault of such individuals. Perhaps over the years our efforts at nation building have fallen far short of the requirements and therefore the distortions in the social mind set.

The complexity of the tantra that acts as a convenient shroud for the corrupt enabling him to almost never getting caught is also at fault. Yet the recent indictment and jail of senior politicians for abetment of corrupt practices gives hope that perhaps we are moving in the right direction.

Our inability to differentiate between what is ours and what is not is indeed sad and this is at the root cause of incidences akin to what resulted in the recent harassment. Our rank inability whether mistaken or on purpose to play the role of custodians and also our penchant to regard the service of the self, much above that of the nation provides the foundation for such actions.

Yet one single individual can change the direction or the fortunes of the nation and all its citizens. That is what leadership is all about and perhaps we are witnessing that rare moment in the history of the nation when that single individual has arrived on the national scene.

In god and providence we trust and in our hearts a burning desire to see a really clean nation.