Indians! Are we being Moral/ Ethical {Part-1}??

 Indians! Are we being Moral/ Ethical ?

  It has been taught to us that "Divine light is within us." Has the light lost its glow?

India has always been known for its rich culture and values. Giving respect, living in coherence, helping each other with joys and sorrows etc. have always been our tradition. We have a golden past of moral values and ethical behavior. Our whole mythology (Ramayana & Mahabharata) had been based upon these.  Ours is a place of Gautam Buddha whose preaches are adhered by the majority of people in the world. We are the land of seekers who understood the value of human bonds and camaraderie. We have been following all these values for centuries. But, now things are evolving and with the evolution comes a price. Now we are at the closure of the second decade of this millennium. We are about to become the third largest economy soon. We will be having the youngest population in 2020. All this sounds so incredible. But in this race are we losing on something?

Here is my thought:

Somewhere I feel our morality has taken a backseat. We have stopped evaluating things in terms of ethics. Lately, we are indulging in more crimes, harassment, bullying and more inhuman activities.  I can recollect few examples to make my point. Although it's not a morality lesson but indeed an introspecting session. So be your own judge. Again I may be generalizing things so use your own logic.

 

     1. Road Accidents: Humanity’s inherent nature has always been of empathy and compassion. Helping others has always been in our genes. But contrary to that, It’s a frequent sight that whenever road accidents happen, most of the people just become the mere spectator. I have no idea what kind of sadistic pleasure they get seeing someone in pain and agony. I may be sound pessimistic but this is the harsh reality and mere opposition to the opinion won't do any good. 

 

      


As per the data cited in a report, the country recorded at least 5 lacs accidents in 2016, leading to 1.5 lacs deaths, which analytically leads to 17 deaths every hour. Now,  try picking up any newspaper any day and I can bet that there will definitely be a news of ignorance of the road dwellers towards the victim of road accidents and because of that people might have lost their precious lives. Taking a note of this behavior, even the supreme court has given the guidelines to the administration to ensure that no trouble is given to the road samaritans who help the accident victims. But that doesn’t seem to be helping. We have become so reluctant that we have forgotten the basis of humanity. We have to understand that the person being involved in these accidents could have been us or our dear ones. Would our reactions be the same? Also, no way is given to ambulances in the majority of cases. People tend to break rules just to reach sooner to their destination. This isn't right and because of this other people suffer.

Also, a minor accident on the road leads to ego clashes. I have traveled a lot and lived in various cities of India and been to several countries abroad. The basic difference I find is the reaction of people (Again I am generalizing). Few of the incidences in developed countries which I have witnessed is that the people involved in accidents first ensure the safety of each other and then the counterparty’s safety. They exchange numbers and other necessary information and that’s it. All happens so calmly as if nothing significant has happened. On the contrary in India, the preliminary reactions will be an exchange of volley of abuses from both sides. Then they will start being physical. Next comes references of the babus and netas (contacts).  I mean are we serious? Be thankful that everybody is safe. And why to worry if the vehicle is insured? The damage has already been done. Assaulting will only satisfy your ego and nothing else.

Again, I am not here to give answers. I am not the right guy. But it is just the bits and pieces of what I feel is going wrong. All we need is to stop and think. Keep a buffer to our reaction. The basic foundation of humanity is compassion and we Indians are losing that.  That’s a big question to introspect. I leave the answers to your own wisdom.

2.Corruption: Corruption is something of which everybody will be aware of. India is a country where it may be possible that Electricity would not have reached a particular village but the corruptions of some kind must have reached somehow.

Examples : 

a.Most of the things in India happens by bribery. It's another matter whether you are willing to give or not. Be it passing of file, waiver of electricity bills and even obtaining birth or death certificate. No money no work is the most adhered motto. Also, getting a driver’s license In UP is as simple as getting your credit card. Although Credit card company sometimes asks your CIBIL score. License authorities don't even ask for that. All they want is money. My personal experience during application of my driver's license was far from being good. Although I knew driving quite well, I was told that I may not pass the exam, until I give the desired commission to the inspector. Isn't it unethical?

b. MANREGA is a classic example of how corruption helps in increasing our GDP. Since last 10 years, there had been instances where the Gram Pradhan used to create ghost accounts on several names to get all benefit himself. What he didn't realize that it is the money of downtrodden people who have the hardship to get two meals a day. His such fraudent way of making money is ensuring someone to sleep empty belly at night. What kind of humanism is this? {All thanks to Direct Benefit Transfer, it has been controlled to an extent}

c. Lastly, a classic case of “The Caravan” where a person shared a true incident. Ramalingam (name changed) lives in India and get news of his uncle's demise who lived in Malaysia. He goes to Malaysia to get his uncle’s mortal remains. All the formalities are done in a cohesive manner. He finds the authorities to be sympathetic and helpful. Within 3 hours all formalities are done and he is ready to come to India without hassle. Now the trouble starts. As the remains arrive, he gets trapped into bureaucratic cobweb running from pillars to posts to get the formalities done. Forget about compassion, the officials demanded a bribe to release the body. At least have some respect for the dead!

3. We are the most racist race: We are the ones who have been following caste system till now. We classify people into upper and lower social strata. But let's keep the rhetoric aside. The instances where people from middle African countries have been ill-treated, beaten up shows how narrow our values have become. Instances of bullying, sexual assault on foreign tourists indicate that we are losing the spirit of “Atithi Devo Bhava”.

 

 

 Go to a tourist spot and observe how foreigners are perceived by Indians. Few of us make sure that foreigners feel out of the place. Many people stare at them, make fun of them, joke about them in public places. Many of us deceive them in every possible way and give them the impression of “Incredible India”. On the other hand, most of the countries embrace the tourists as they are an important source of revenue and livelihood of the country.

 

4. How swachh are we: Though the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has brought in some changes. But majority's mindset hasn't changed much. Their sole objective is to keep their sweet home clean and let the authorities be bothered about the colony’s/city's cleanliness. We throw garbage anywhere, spit anywhere, even pee anywhere, and when epidemics spread, we simply put the blame on authorities again. It's so easy, right? Where are our civil duties? Although our country lack infrastructure but let's just play our part honestly and expect the government to play its part.

5. Corporate criminals: All doesn't seem right in Indian corporate sector. The race of going ahead is leaving us far behind in terms of ethics. We play politics, want to succeed at the cost of others, take advantage of one's situation and what not. Exploitation of workers, professionals in the corporate world is a common story these days.  Earning money by fraudulent ways has become a culture now. The reality is that nobody trusts a salesman. ( No offense to the marketing guys!)

 In the financial world, cases like "Satyam" is an example of greed making promoters to cook their account books for several years.  Such deeds had led to the loss of thousands of crores of investors hard earned money. Also, the potential investors became wary and lost confidence in the financial sector as a whole and as a result, the whole sector suffered for a long time. The Harshad Mehta scam is another example of such unethical/ immoral decision. All these take a toll on the long-term growth of individual, company, the sector and finally the country.
Ask a common man about the stock market and his reaction will be talking about how people lose money, fraud, it being an absolute gamble etc.
{SEBI is doing a lot to protect small investors these days}

 

At last, What is Ethics? 

It is a set of commonly believed values to which everyone agrees working towards the same goal. It is not written anywhere but tacitly understood. Therefore, the problem arises due to people’s self-assertion that whatever they are doing is right. This leads to complacency and that ultimately leads to unethical behavior unintentionally.

So, finally we Indian have to introspect about what kind of world we want to make. Just blaming others won't do any good. Take the responsibility and be the change you want to see in the world.

Finally again I want to reiterate that I am not here to judge.  These are the few excerpts which I believe requires the attention of everyone. There is much more to talk about but we will discuss it some other day. Till then "Be Ethical!".

That's it for now!

Chao 

Prashant