The issue has
to be looked at in the context of several developments in the recent
past:
An avalanche of financial misdemeanors starting with the Harshad Mehta
case, featuring personalities cited by the industry as role models.
A series
of criminal cases against politicians holding the highest office in
state and central government.
The
pressures exerted on the socio-economic and cultural fabric of the
nation by the onslaught of economic liberalization. Visible symptoms
of the malaise are: steep rise in violence and crime of all types
(including white-collar crime), galloping consumerism and attendant
amorality.
Is the
social fabric ripping?
Is there any
category of ethics peculiar to industry or to government? Profiteering,
exploitation, hard-sell, end-not-the-means apply equally to all areas of
human endeavor as undesirable conduct, harmful to society at large and
to individuals in particular. How is the role of the bureaucrat, or of
the politician, any different from that of the industrialist as far as
ethics is concerned? Hence, the quintessential need is an understanding
of one's role in the context of the super-ordinate goal.
There is a pervasive lack of clarity about the goal itself because of
obsession with achieving objectives quantified in terms of money.
Industrialists appear to have pushed into the hinterland of their
consciousness their role as enhancers of the nation's wealth. They
concentrate on maximizing profit regardless of the impact of their
actions on society and the environment.
Management executives are caught up in a frenzy of activity, ("wrestling
with the laptop computer's appointments-and-jobs-to-be-done program" -
Stafford Beer, Cybernetics Guru), ending up as slaves of their own
activities (cf. Gita 4.14 and "the world is imprisoned in its own
activity" Gita 3.9), losing sight of social good and turning into modern
Philistines (cf. Margaret Thatcher: "There is no such thing as
society").
So what are we left with? The individual and his selfish desires!
The bureaucrat is oblivious of his role as a public servant in a welfare
state that is to be administered in accordance with the laws enacted by
the legislature. Rent-seeking behavior is his signature, harassment the
modus operandi. He feels it beneath his status to serve anyone except
his own interests, oblivious of any obligation he owes for being paid
his salary by the earnings of the people of the nation.
The political executive prefers to overlook the oath sworn to uphold the
Constitution of India, in which the Directive Principles of State Policy
provide the goals towards which it is elected by the people to take the
country. Its outlook is using power to make money to ensure re-election
so that more power can be wielded to make more money. Graft and
statecraft have become synonymous.
All of these are driven by two overwhelming impulses: Greed and Fear.
Greed to have more, with its inevitable camp-follower Arrogance; Fear of
someone more powerful who will take away what has been grabbed and
humiliate.
The Vohra Committee Report, taken cognizance of by Parliament and the
Supreme Court, documents the vicious nexus of money, crime, politics and
power that is strangling the people of India. The government's role
vis-a-vis industry is twofold:
Facilitate the creation of wealth for the nation by industrialists;
create a user-friendly responsive administration with a human face where
rules are meant for ensuring impartiality, not as instruments of
harassment for extortion.
Protect people's rights, the environment, the national interest against
damage by the activities of, inter-alia, industrialists.
In all spheres of action where leadership is involved - whether in
industry, in management, in public administration - the motivation has
to spring from within, from a sense of commitment to the welfare and
prosperity of society and the nation. It is a we-win-they win-everybody
wins frame of reference that has to prevail, and not the obsession that
I can win only if they and everyone else - even the country - loses.
Need has to replace Greed, Giving has to replace Grabbing.
Rabindranath Tagore brought the point home in one of his dawn talks at
Shantiniketan. He pointed out, "Wealth has to be created-- if this
intention is kept within the mind, then it will not do to allow our
desires to roam around as they will... When desire spills over its inner
banks, it destroys everything." Therefore, he urges that desire be
subjugated to the authority of the inner will, which "binds down all the
restless desires around some internal intention." Thereby, man grows in
wisdom, possessions and prowess.
However, there are also conflicting wills within us, pursuing which we
fall victim to tiredness, depression, ennui, constantly seek "the liquor
of excitement" and are ultimately cheated. Tagore tells us that we
experience the supreme goodness of the monarchy of the will when we
harmonize all our inner intents with the world-will, namely:
"the will for welfare. That is not only my wish, not only your wish,
that is the fundamental and eternal will of the universe... Then
renunciation does not harm, in forgiveness there is no loss of prowess,
in service there is no slavery. Then danger does not terrify,
chastisement cannot punish, death abandons horror" (Human Values: the
Tagorean Panorama, pp. 140-143).
That, then, is the adamantine armour repelling the twin virulent goads
of Greed and Fear that impel the industrialist, the manager, the
administrative and political executive.
Let us recall the super-ordinate goal enunciated by our own ancient
tradition:
Sarve api sukhinaha santu Sarve santu niramayaha
Sarve bhadrani pasyantu Ma kascitdu dukhabhak bhavet.
Vasudhaiva kutumbakam.
May all
secure happiness, may all enjoy good health,
May all experience goodness around them.
Let none be in pain or sorrow.
The world is my family.
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