Former Union Minister and the DMK MP A Raja recently warned that Tamil Nadu could secede from India. The Presidential candidate of the Opposition Yashwant Sinha is livid against the abrogation of Article 370. Former Maharashtra Minister Aditya Thackeray claimed that ‘dirt’ has been washed away after Eknath Shinde formed the government in the state with most of the MLAs of the Shiv Sena going with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress is casting aspersions on the office of the President of India, throwing ‘rubber stamp’ barb at the top Constitutional post of the country. It appears as if the Opposition parties in their want of short-cuts have forgotten that politics without ethics and moral values are as fragile as camphor.
Raja had taken the oath to protect the unity and integrity of India when he became a minister in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. He didn’t reflect on his oath when he uttered that Tamil Nadu could secede from India, because in his own words ‘the Central government is not giving enough funds to the state’. His claims are blatant lies, but more worrisome is the abject absence of ethics in his conduct.
Yashwant Sinha’s name and fame are all on account of his long stints as a Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. He as the senior BJP leader must have argued an uncountable number of times for the repeal of Article 370 from the dais of the party at 11, Ashoka Road in New Delhi. All along, he associated with the BJP’s core agenda, which included the repeal of Article 370. But, he’s now a votary of the abrogated Article 370. In times when memories are so refreshed by social media with the speed of electricity, it’s astounding that a person of the stature of Yashwant Sinha could disown his part in such a cold manner.
If the public posturing of the political leader is based on the immediate expediency of the time, the youngsters in the country may wonder that opportunism is the greatest virtue in the world. The next generation of political leaders who will look back at such examples wouldn’t lose even seconds to trample on the social ethics and moral values of the country. If the political space in the Opposition camp is so muddied, other professions aren’t faring any better, baring a full scale of value barrenness.
The business community, academics, broadcast medium, art and film and so on are fast becoming victims of the collective rush for instant gratification. Students don’t respect teachers. Employees despise employers. Famed ‘gurus’ in the art world have become an endangered species. Such social bankruptcy of ethics and moral values can take the country on a dangerous path.
The schools and colleges aren’t debating ‘what’s right and wrong’ enough. Students wear the proverbial blinkers to stay single-mindedly focused on grades. Teachers are too busy to strike a personal rapport with their students. Employers don’t have time for their employees. There’s a rush that everyone should just begin laying golden eggs, and if they cannot then they are just thrown away.
The malaise isn’t isolated. There’s a cascading effect all around. One is looking at another, and learning ways to excel in doing the worse. The children are copying youngsters, who in turn are justifying their actions to their elders. This vicious circle is well entrenched. Ethics must gain the top attention of all, for that’s the foundation of the well-being of society. The edifice of ethics is built on moral values which in turn feed on exemplary behaviour of the people who are most often seen and watched, and such people can be in the domains of politics, business, academics, media and others.
Since there is an alarming lapse of ethics in all walks of life, is it not the right time to institutionalise the significance of ethics? Now that the New Education Policy 2020 is being embraced and implemented by the state governments, while the top academicians brainstorm on ways to improve the learning outcome, shouldn’t ethics and moral values are taught in schools, colleges and professional institutions in such ways that their evident practice is quantified in grades for the credit banks of the students? Why cannot employers look for the creditable practices of ethics by potential employees? The people too can
be sensitised enough so that they can begin looking for ethical values in the conduct of the political leaders and their lack be made into unforgivable sins.
Sumeet Bhasin
Twitter: @sumeetbhasin
Director, Public Policy Research Centre