Let’s be honest to admit that we have not been able to handle the pandemic as effectively as we should have and perhaps could have. While citing reasons may produce long list of responses that were found missing, if we try to get to the roots, we may come to just one conclusion. More than anything else it was a failure of character. Character of those responsible for policy making that is the political class. But the bureaucratic machinery was also equally responsible for not applying their mind, the job they are supposed to do. It was also the failure of character of the common people who acted irresponsible enough to let Corona flourish the second time. What an irony. We knew what was required. Yet, we did what was not required. The point is that this is not the first time a pandemic like this has dealt a bloody blow. When are we going to learn? Maybe not as long as we are not honest to admit our mistakes, learn from them and let those who know the job do it. This is a typical Indian scenario. We always find the wrong man for the right place. You need nothing else to invite a disaster. And so, it was. Saying that the common man erred may pass on some portion of the blame to the scapegoat but that does not absolve the political class of their sin. Governance was more important than forming governments but people preferred the latter. It took a higher judiciary to point out how callous some institutions have become. If people are honest to admit mistakes and learn from them things could improve in the future. But hoping this is a tall order. The chaos that has set in reminds of an old Gandhian quote — When wealth is lost nothing is lost, when health is lost something is lost, but when character is lost everything is lost. The point he wanted to emphasise was that character is the all-important attribute. Character can help regain health and wealth even if we lose these. But the present times have no room for character, as wealth and health occupy the front seat. The results are there to see. We still can make up for the lost ground if we pick up the moral courage to own our mistakes. But for that there is need to shed the ego, the king size ego that always tells us that we are infallible. As the political class continues to pat its own back, situation is going from bad to worse. Time for some soul searching. Gandhiji had talked about seven social sins in his weekly newspaper Young India on October 22, 1925. It would be worthwhile recollecting them, which were — Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice and Politics without principles. While all those sins are responsible for the present-day situation, it may be prudent to identify the deadliest of the sins talked by Gandhi 95 years ago. It is politics without principles that has become the biggest curse of the present times. It is politics that is at the helm of everything. Though many definitions of politics are there power is Central to all of them. It is obsession with power that is the root cause of all evil. While thinking of principled politics may sound utopian only that can lead us out of the morass we are in.
Pathak is a professor of management, writer, and an acclaimed public speaker. He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com
