Honesty, without courage, is flawed

How far can honesty as a virtue take you if you are also perceived as ineffective and spineless? Does that honesty then have any value? Does it serve any purpose?

This is the tragedy of prime minister Manmohan Singh’s clean image post-Radiagate, which forced the UPA government to eject the tainted telecom minister A Raja. Though upright and honest, Singh’s image has eroded considerably because of evidence that he did not act decisively in the 2G scam when it was brought to his notice as early as 2008.

Singh was perhaps constrained by the compulsions of coalition politics and the collective wisdom at the highest level in the Congress. But his compromise has come at a price.

Unless you belong to the Gandhi family, the party always stands supreme. That is also what prevented then-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from demanding the resignation of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the aftermath of the 2002 Godhra carnage. As documented, Vajpayee wanted Modi to quit but had to remain silent because many seniors in the party, including LK Advani, differed with him.

The party also asserted itself to reprimand Advani and Jaswant Singh for praising the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

To their credit, these two leaders stood their ground courageously and paid the price rather than buckle under pressure.

Honesty in public life works up to a point and not beyond if it is not accompanied with courage. Indira Gandhi is admired for her courage in spite of her excesses such as the Emergency. Her decisive role in the creation of Bangladesh is the most striking example.

Whistleblowers belong to the class of people who may be honest like the silent majority but stand apart by showing extraordinary courage in helping expose a fraud in the public domain. Many newspaper and TV exposè are a result of such people in the system; although, most leaks originate from corporate rivalry, political and bureaucratic jealousies.

To be sure, today’s generation is benefiting from the fruits of economic liberalisation. But what’s needed is a greater willingness to take risks; to do and dare — not just for personal prosperity but also for the larger good.

Such is the reality that parents are gripped with fear at the time of nursery school admission, during board exams and admission to professional colleges. As an IIT veteran said, many IIT graduates see themselves as failures if their starting salary offer is as “low” as Rs10 lakhs per annum. “Why are we surrounded by insecurity? Where is the passion,” he asks, “to do something in life, to do something for the country?”

Whether it is Manmohan Singh or the man on the street, we need to fix our fears one way or the other. We need to be unreasonable, because, as George Bernard Shaw explained, “all progress depends on the unreasonable man”.

This year marks the beginning of the 150th birth centenary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest sons of India. Citing his own example of near-death experiences, one of Vivekananda’s most powerful messages to his followers was to get rid of their fears and insecurities. As he put it: “Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.”

It’s time to ponder and revisit Vivekananda.