Not giving a damn for values

So the question is, how have we so soon lost all basic values? Why does Azharuddin have to toe a communal line? Why are some of our professions never accountable and this extends to the media as well? The media can go ahead and write anything they wish but they too realise that nothing much will happen. Have we lost some basic values of honesty and transparency or are these no longer relevant? I would imagine this would seem a very cynical view of life in India but then scratch the surface and you will then observe how true it is. Our lack of truthfulness and transparency also prevents us from taking action. Why does the government not sack the cricket board? Why has Jagmohan Dalmiya not been arrested as yet or, for that matter, even questioned? If one were to go out onto the streets and ask people if they believe the guilty will be punished, the answer will be a resounding no! This is the depth to which a nation’s conscience has fallen.

One is not asking for national cleansing but then look at this extending to all walks of public life. What has happened to the defamed Ashok Aggarwal of the Enforcement Directorate? What has happened to the driver of the BMW that ran amuck? Has anyone been punished for Kargil? I have not heard of any court-martials in the offing. Will no one be accountable for Kandahar? I am tired of bringing up these issues but then these are the issues that remind us that we are only a functioning democracy but in all other other senses we are a complete anarchy. We have absolutely no ethics when it comes to dealing with people and their aspirations, their right to information and their right to know what actually happened. I can predict that the day the Indian cricket team begins to win again, we will forget match-fixing. Our godmen and fixers have run this country for far too long. In the process we have become desensitised. I am often asked by very erudite friends not to take on the establishment but is seeking answersakin to taking on the establishment? The moot question is, can there ever be an establishment other than the people in a democracy?

The erosion of values began with Indira Gandhi who legitimised corruption and it has not ceased since. She corrupted every walk of public life, ran amuck as prime minister and gave to India an alternative hierarchy where money and not truth prevails; where power and not merit rules; where the civil servant is working more for his own promotion than for the welfare of the people. But we keep quiet about all this. Because it suits us. The so-called establishment has now mastered the art of overpowering. Media is silenced by freebies and junkets; the bureaucrat is silenced by the threat of an adverse comment on his ACR; the judiciary struggles to keep some systems protected but even that is not enough.

Cartoonist R.K. Laxman commented recently that today’s India lacks leaders; it has only politicians. This is a self-serving tribe and add to that the machinations of a corrupt bureaucracy and a selfish private sector and you have the kind of mix we have. And it is this that the criminal takes advantage of. Every day we hear of the CBI interrogating one cricketer or the other. Why can’t the public be taken into confidence? This passion for secrecy is what has killed India and will further erode every basic value we have. In an unfettered world, information is no longer power, consumer (in this case citizen) faith is and our leaders and their civil servants must understand this!

A sense of fair play cannot elude us in everything we do; we cannot have a just society which is founded on the twin planks of deceit and escapism. I remember writing about Farooq Abdullah being the modern-day golfing Nero which was promptly denied by the J&K Information Department. Three days later there was a front-page photograph showing the CM at the golf course. Now what was the harm in admitting that yes, the CM plays golf? It’s far better that some things he does while being at work! But no, we just had to deny the truth. This is symptomatic of the escape-from-the-truth syndrome.

When questions were being asked as to why Kargil happened, one was told that it was an unpatriotic thing to do. But then why don’t you go and ask the families of those who died? Is this question not uppermost on their minds? Every year on June 13 the nation plays a farce that is so insensitive. We show people gathering at the memorial for Uphaar victims but on June 14 the whole nation forgets the tragedy that struck the cine-goers.

All of this stems from a systemic error. I believe our basic problem is we are unwilling to face (or admit) the truth, no matter where it is; either in the arena of public affairs or in our own lives. The Indian today has become a wicked Walter Mitty revelling in the fact that if it hasn’t happened to me, it doesn’t exist. But then how far will this take us? How brazen will indiscipline become? How corrupt will we finally end up being? And what will happen to those generations that will still be fed Gandhian thought? Won’t they laugh at their teacher? Are there any easy answers? We need to admit that there is something seriously wrong, something that can no longer be brushed under the carpet. We need to make our leaders ever more accountable. We need to socially ostracise those who play with our emotions and sentiments. They have no business to and it’s time we told them so!

It is only then will we see the return of values in our lives; values that not just we but the Indians in years to come can be proud of. If there is anything we need, it is immediate course-correction — from within!