Lesson Ethics It was 1988 or 1987, I had to travel by train from Delhi to Chandigarh. I boarded Himalayan Queen early morning , reached Chandigarh by 10:00 AM. I was also carrying a voltage stabilizer with me. It was Heavy enough that I needed a coolie to lift the same. At the exit gate, I was stopped by the Ticket checker and asked for the luggage ticket. I obviously did not have it, I negotiated with him, paid Rs. 50 to him to let me go. Watching me outside the gate, was a private taxi driver, looking for passengers. He did not negotiate with me and agreed to what I offered for his taxi fare from Chandigarh Railway Station to Mohali. On the way, this driver started with me to me in English. “Sir, if you don’t mind, I would like to say something” “Okay, please tell me” I replied. “ If I was in your place, I would not have paid bribe to the TC. I would have rather paid the fine” I got serious and curious. “ By paying bribe to the TC you have corrupted him.” He was so bold and forthright. Voiceless me, surprised, asked him about his whereabouts. “ Sir I am a retired Captain of the Indian Army, after retiring I did not beg for job anywhere, started driving a private taxi for work and have no regrets. I do not negotiate with my passengers, earn enough and live happy and satisfied. As I am narrating this incident after about 36 years, not only do I remember this incident, I remember his stature and pride. In a short journey of about 30-40 minutes he left a lasting impression on me. Unsolicited he bruised my ego, made me look small. An officer from Indian Army gave me the first lesson in my life on ETHICS.
भ्रष्टाचार बनाम नैतिकता एक विचित्र शब्द है भ्रष्टाचार। इस को परिभाषित करना समय की पुकार है। पर इस को परिभाषित करेगा कौन, यह तो सर्वव्यापी है, सर्वशक्तिमान है। इस शब्द ने, जाने कितनी सरकारें गिरा दी, कितनों को जेल हो गई, कईयों की नौकरी चली गई। यह एक किस्म का कुकरमुत्ता है जो कहीं भी उग आता है। बस जरा सी नमी और हवा चाहिए। समय रहते, अगर किसान जाग जाए तो ठीक नहीं तो सारी फसल चौपट, हज़म कर लेता है। अब सबसे बड़ी समस्या तो यह है कि इसे पहचाने कैसे, जैसी फसल हो वैसे ही इसका रंग-रूप होता है। अब अगर कुछ गिने-चुने बुद्धिजीवियों ने इसे पहचान लिया तो क्या, भारत भूमि में तो यह सर्वव्यापी है, सर्वशक्तिमान है जो दो पोषक तत्वों पर इसकी उपज या खेती होती है, वह है नमी यानी पैसा और हवा यानी पावर। भारत में अभी तक इसकी कोई पुख्ता दवाई नहीं बनी और कब बनेगी, इस विषय पर अभी चंद बुद्धिजीवियों ने विचार करना शुरू किया है। कुछ बेचारे समाजशास्त्री इस विषय पर शोध कर रहे हैं। आशा है कि क़यामत से पहले वैक्सीन बन के तैयार हो जाएगी और भारत भूमि पर इसका छिड़काव हो जाएगा। भ्रष्टाचार के बहुत सारे उपनाम हैं या उपजातियां हैं जैसे कि घोटाला, धांधली, गड़बड़, गबन, फ्रॉड, हेरा-फेरी वगैरह-वगैरह। इन नामों के प्रयोग का सर्वाधिकार मीडिया के पास है। मीडिया इसे उछालता है और जनता इसे लपक लेती है। अब यह सुनिश्चित किया गया है कि खेल एक तरफा ही चले, अगर यह उल्टा हो जाए तो मुसीबत यानी जनता उछाले और मीडिया पकड़े। इस उल्टी प्रक्रिया को रोकने के लिए पुख्ता इंतज़ाम हो गए हैं। एक जादूगर “अबरा-का-डाबरा” कहते हुए अपनी झोले से कभी कबूतर तो कभी जलती हुई मोमबत्ती निकालता है और जनता पैसे खर्च करके इस तमाशे को देखती है। जादूगर का अस्तित्व है, झोला है और अगर झोला नहीं तो जादू नहीं। इसी उदाहरण में छुपा हुआ है भ्रष्टाचार का मूल मंत्र और वह है पर्दा। मूल रूप से देखें तो सत्ता पक्ष और विपक्ष के बीच खींचतान इसी पर्दे को लेकर होती रहती है। पूरा सरकारी तंत्र इस पर्दे की सुरक्षा में तैनात रहता है, और तैनात रहेगा। भ्रष्टाचार की उपयोगिता अनगिनत है, यह सामाजिक सौहार्द बनाए रखता है। भाषा, जाति, वर्ण, धर्म — सारी विसंगतियों को समतल करता है। बाबू कोई भी जाति-धर्म का हो, उठना-बैठना, उसे प्रसन्न रखना, सेवा करना, कुशल व्यापारी का धर्म है। परोक्ष भ्रष्टाचार एक नया संतुलन पैदा करता है। मेरे विचार में खुला भ्रष्टाचार समाज से जातिवाद, नस्लवाद, धार्मिक भेदभाव समाप्त कर देगा। पहले भी कई बुद्धिजीवी इस विषय पर लिख चुके हैं। आर्थिक प्रगति का पैरामीटर है। एक संपन्न अर्थव्यवस्था अपने घोटालों के आकार से पहचानी जाती है। फर्क सिर्फ इतना पड़ता है कि पैसा खर्चने वाला बदल जाता है, रहता तो देश में ही है। एक नया-नया समृद्ध बाबू, कार खरीदेगा, नौकर रखेगा, दारू खरीदेगा या खरीदवाएगा, देश की GDP में ही योगदान करेगा — है कि नहीं? इसमें किसी भी अर्थशास्त्री को क्या आपत्ति हो सकती है? भ्रष्टाचार का अंग्रेजी अनुवाद “corruption” बिल्कुल अनुचित है, अव्यावहारिक है। अंग्रेजी में corruption शब्द का प्रयोग कई तकनीकी विषयों में भी किया जाता है और उसका तकनीकी उपचार भी होता है, परंतु भ्रष्टाचार शब्द अनूठा है। अगर आपका कंप्यूटर का सॉफ़्टवेयर बिगड़ गया तो आप क्या समझेंगे कि वह भ्रष्ट हो गया है? कदापि नहीं। भ्रष्टाचार विशिष्ट है। यह कंप्यूटर आदि उपकरणों का कुछ बिगाड़ नहीं सकता और अगर बिगाड़ दे तो उसका कोई उपचार नहीं होता। भ्रष्टाचार की तुलना एक विशिष्ट संदर्भ में अंग्रेजी के शब्द “sex” से करना चाहता हूं। कई सदियों तक इस शब्द का प्रयोग खुले तौर पर करना अनुचित माना जाता रहा और नतीजा यह हुआ कि जनसंख्या 140 करोड़ पार कर गई। सरकारें जागी, प्रचार और रिसर्च शुरू किया, लेकिन आंकड़ा बढ़ता गया और इतना कि 50 प्रतिशत जनता के बाद इसके अलावा और कुछ बचा ही नहीं। अब यह परिस्थिति हम भ्रष्टाचार के साथ भुगत तो नहीं सकते। अतः शुरू से ही भ्रष्टाचार के विषय में संगोष्ठियाँ व चर्चाएँ होनी चाहिए, स्कूल-कॉलेजों के पाठ्यक्रम में भ्रष्टाचार का विस्तृत अध्यापन होना चाहिए। इस विषय के विशिष्ट विभाग बनने चाहिए, PhD होना चाहिए और प्रसिद्ध भ्रष्टाचारियों को बुलाकर उनके अनुभवों से छात्रों को सीखने का मौका देना चाहिए। मेरा दावा है, भ्रष्टाचार जब दोष-मुक्त हो जाएगा, समाप्त हो जाएगा। एक कहावत है: “लोहा लोहे को काटता है, ज़हर ज़हर को काटता है।” इसी तरह भ्रष्टाचार ही भ्रष्टाचार को समाप्त कर सकता है। भ्रष्टाचार और नैतिकता एक साथ नहीं रह सकते। इसलिए देश के माननीय नीति-निर्माताओं ने “भ्रष्टाचार” शब्द का प्रयोग संसद में करने पर रोक लगा दी है। खेल यूं है कि प्रजा नैतिकता का पाठ पढ़ती है और भ्रष्टाचार अब एक विशेषाधिकार के रूप में स्थापित हो गया है। मुझे आप ही बताएं, और कोई उपचार है? अगर हां तो प्रयोग शुरू करें। आप भारत के राजनैतिक आकाश में ध्रुव तारे की तरह चमकेंगे।
On My Return from China I had the opportunity to visit a couple of countries / Cities in the past four months. My first destination was Hongkong and then to China by road. It was almost 9:00 AM local time our group landed at HK Airport, then by road to Shenzhen border. One difference that attracted me instantly was cleanliness. Despite applying critical mind to the hilt, I could not locate a single spot which I could call dirty. This experience sustained throughout my stay in China. Barring a small lane adjoining a shopping mall I could locate a couple of paper sheets strewn carelessly. Whenever me and my friend went outside our hotel, we misjudged freshly washed roads as a spell of rain showers. We realized when we saw large trucks washing and vacuum–cleaning the roads. The footpaths otherwise were also clean. Almost every part of the city seemed articulately master–planned. Returned, with many such experiences, to be shared with my family and friends. Much later I also happened to visit Gandhi Nagar, capital of Gujarat. A marvellously planned city, with no dearth of open spaces, wide roads and by–lanes, almost everything a modern habitat could aspire. Unfortunately almost every corner of Gandhi Nagar was dirty. As part of a team working for a smart–city project, I was astonished to find that their office toilets had no water. How would a smart city be without water and hygiene? My following visit was Bikaner which has lowest standard of public hygiene. Open drains and foul–smelling colonies. No one complains. And so are Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai… Yes, the VIP Lutyens’ area of Central Delhi, Chanakyapuri – a few areas which can claim to be clean. There is no city in India which is 100% clean. There is a responsibility crux between common citizens and the local administrations, run by political masters and bureaucrats rebutting any blame. Not only that, there is not a single local administration clean. It has become a politician-vs-bureaucracy love-joy subject. It’s a travesty of socio-political and socio-civic order. People expect that municipal authorities will do it and vice versa. Putting my story in the right perspective I can say that cleanliness was never a part of our civic order. We have grossly misunderstood our responsibility as citizens of an independent country. While a common man may not have the capacity and capability to create a social disorder, he has the freedom to spit anywhere, throw plastic bottles, wrappers, napkins out in the streets. This behaviour is not specific to any given community or income group. Rich and educated people spread dirt and filth depending upon their buying power. My train journey from Delhi to Kishangarh, Rajasthan was indeed memorable. The train washroom had no water. On way back I boarded Shatabdi Express from Kishangarh to Delhi. I complained about poorest standard of food served in train. No reply, no reaction and no response. If you do that you will get an automated response asking for your PNR number… nothing actually happened. We have all turned immune to such treatment in our civic life. Like me, thousands of people complain and keep silent and subsequently decide not to complain. Cleanliness is an essential civic order which we never acknowledged. We have a lot of teachings on religion- based social order but nothing on basic collective hygiene. The road ahead is even tough. Unless we are able to educate and enforce, the wealthy ones shall keep moving out for a better quality of life. There are so many examples to quote and thousands of stories to tell about this menace, I decided to write it and forget it, because I can’t be a single-handed change maker. There is a freshly introduced value-added course *Swachh Bharat* in universities. Thousands of students enrol expecting high scores and improving their overall rank. By the way, there was a Swachh Bharat Tax for government to fund this endless mission. When was it withdrawn, I don’t know. Wait and watch for the outcome but don’t shun your endless hope of something happening in future. The question is **when?**
Man Vs. Machine, Out-perform each other Naya Daur, a 1957 movie starring Dilip Kumar, highlighted the emerging conflict between man vs. machine. This movie won several prizes showing victory of a horse cart over a motor car, a bus. As the time passed, horse carts became history and buses took over. The idea of manual labour winning over machine faded and was lost forever. Horse power was set in history as a measure of power. Animal power got outperformed by machine power. Machine power placed manpower on a higher pedestal. The idea of enslaving humans for hard manual jobs faded and ultimately ended by all means. A new era of man vs. machine emerged. While on one hand humans got liberated from the pain of hard work, a newer concept of skill became necessity, needing more and more people to master the machines. 1947 – 1965 was the defining period of how our country shall emerge from the outdated fallacy of “hard work = only manual work”. Celebrating victory of a horse-cart beating a bus in a race was a mistake that our forefathers did not recognize. Not only did bus become the mode of transport for the next generation, buses were outperformed by metro trains. Man could never beat the machine… in other words, humans made machines which were ready to outperform human limits of productivity and profitability. As a country we learnt this mistake much later. In my opinion there is little that we can learn from history – in other words, whatever learning we could obtain from our history, we have already obtained. There is lot to learn from the present times and to prepare for the unpredictable future. Right now while I am writing this piece of text, someone, somewhere is making the smartest and the cheapest computer or a machine which will outperform today’s machine. Future is unpredictable for almost everyone except for the scientist who is laying the foundation stone for the same. As a nation India lacks scientific temper and zeal to outperform. Our love for history is erroneous. Time is slipping out of hands. A restless and zealous youth willing to outperform in every arena of science shall write the future. RIP Naya Daur 1957, embrace Naya Daur of 2057.
What The Religion Neale Donald Walsch, an American author, wrote a popular book titled *Conversations with God – An Uncommon Dialogue*, published in 1995. It became a publishing phenomenon, staying on The New York Times Best Sellers List for 137 weeks. Walsch very honestly admitted in his introduction that his book was a monologue. He alone was imagining the questions he wanted to ask (publish) and wrote the most beautiful answers to the same. Millions of copies of the book series were sold, and I happened to read one. So many years later the idea of God and the books kept haunting me. The question is very simple: **Did God tell anything to anyone?** Did God speak or preach to anyone? Did holy books, we believe, came from the God’s mouth, actually do so? I explored for months together to get an answer to this question and stumbled upon some basic facts: If I were to write what my grandfather told my grandmother when they met for the first time, I can only imagine. No one knows what dialogue they had. However, if I am so possessed by the idea of writing one, I can only imagine an appropriate dialogue and write. Nothing more is possible. And furthermore if I were to write what was going on in my mother’s mind when she saw my handsome father for the first time, I can never know – actually no dialogue happened. But I can write the most beautiful poem or a full essay on the same: a third-party imagination beautifully presented to the readers as an experienced bio-pathy – that I could read my mother’s mind about ten years before I was born. Will you agree? I don’t think so. The mythology we are so obsessed about is either fact or fiction. If it is fact, it must find place in history, however old it may be. If it is history it can’t possess dialogues. History can’t carry the proof of a dialogue, because a dialogue is always private; private feelings are always private; fears, apprehensions, delusions are all forever private. Dialogues are written by the scriptwriter, the novelist, an author who wants to write the most beautiful story for his readers to believe. (By the way, I am not talking about academic books.) Every novelist wishes to write the most astonishing stories in a way that the reader accepts it as an eyewitness account of the author. And human psychology is ingrained with the fact that beautifully fictional books cause beautiful images in reader’s mind. The image overtakes the story and the author. Only image prevails and it prevails till the end of the story. Some of the intelligent pieces of literature left images far after the story was over. People refused to believe that the character they were reading about was an imaginary one. Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish writer best known for his creation of the detective Sherlock Holmes — one of the most vivid and enduring characters in English fiction. *Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction?* People refused to believe that Sherlock Holmes was an imaginary character. People wanted to meet him and used to write letters at his imaginary address. Even in the modern world of internet, we do not acknowledge the powerful and far-reaching impact of a story — or a fake news, in other words.