The Home of SIV-G

This essay written by Jagdish Mohan of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore bagged the first Prize in the Online Essay Contest conducted by www.siv-g.org in association with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Trust and Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, Chennai Kendra as part of Birthday Celebration of Sardar Patel

Integrity is something that makes you do what is right even when there is no one watching you. It comes out of ones value system and is something deeply ingrained in us such that it rules out the negative influences of greed or sin wherever it exists. Yes, I said- ‘wherever it exists’ because it does not exist everywhere or in every human being. It has become a virtue rarely to be found. We all worship our gods and goddesses little realizing that all these prayers are fruitless if we cannot follow the very basic principles of social and personal integrity in life. Without integrity we not only violate our conscience but also cause damage to the society that we live in.

Integrity can be of three types- intellectual, moral and financial. Intellectual integrity means our intellect does not cheat us with varying situations and circumstances. Our views and opinions on any issue do not change given different situations to suit our own interests. Very closely related is moral integrity where we know what is morally right once is morally right forever. As educated people, we have a lot of responsibility towards our society. Our opinion holds a lot of importance in a democracy. We should have an opinion and be able to sift the right from the wrong without seeing our vested interests in matters of public interests. It is we who hold positions in the society. As members of societies or social organizations we should voice our opinions in an unbiased manner. Public pressure has the power to shake governments. After all its our country, our society, our people and our government. The governance system is meant for us and only us. So why should we be passive in its working and functioning. Our intellect is something that we should use to bring the governments down on their feet if they forget to use their intellectual integrity. Therefore good governance starts from every citizen and not from the governments.

Financial integrity is about not becoming corrupt, not to get sold to others’ mean interests for some amount of money however big or small. Even the little speed money that we use at government offices to quicken any process or to have our work done faster is nothing but failure of our financial integrity. When we do such things, we are basically encouraging the corrupt system to continue in its present rotten state.

Public integrity actually stems out of personal integrity because its afterall the same value system which resides in a person that lets him make decisions even in public situations. Public integrity requires us to go and cast our votes, not give bribes, not to do or say anything that we harm the society, pay our taxes regularly etc. etc. etc.

Good governance is not the responsibility of the politicians who design the laws and systems for us. We should not forget that the system is in its present state because we approve of it. By remaining passive or silent, we are in fact expressing our consent to the way things are moving on.  True, Governance is about developing good mechanisms in a society  by fostering transparency,  but its responsibility does not start and end with the policy makers alone. We too are the policy makers. The policy makers do whatever we want them to do. By remaining silent, the politicians take us for granted. Basically we are busy in our own personal lives and our jobs. We are content with what is going on around because it does not bother us or hurt us. The brunt of all wrong policies is borne actually by the poor. And if we think we have nothing to do with them, then we are violating all standards of public integrity.

All public services are the windows to a good governance mechanism in any society. The more transparent they become and the more cordial and receptive they become, more will be the ease with which they can transact with the society. Governments need to understand this. As India gets more and more educated, politicians will realize that they can no longer fool the innocent and ignorant village folk by making false promises. Integrity to ones political ideals will eventually become the competitive edge for any political party. And for this to actually become true, we as a society have some great responsibilities to uphold. There has to be an initial kick start somewhere to give momentum to this rise of consciousness.

Can we make a promise to ourselves that we will always go and cast our vote. If 100% of the population goes to caste its vote, can the politicians ignore any single section?. Can people continue to bask in the warmth of their petty interests? If as a society, we are  educated, if we all are aware of our rights, if we all like integrity; these selfish politicians would have to come out in the open and endorse what is right They would have to follow the principles of integrity because we as a society like integrity. Because we would not allow corrupt people to chart their own paths of mean and vested interests. That will be the beginning of good governance. And all this will start when we as individuals become responsible and exercise public and personal integrity.

One good idea would be to form pressure groups to reiterate our views again and again. Most of the educated youth today have internet access. Infact most of them work in IT companies and have internet access. India employed more than 10 lakh IT professionals in 2005. The total number of fresh labour supply to this industry is around 2 lakhs every year. There are lakhs of other jobs available and the youth in most of them also have internet access. Students in schools and colleges are also increasingly getting internet access. With such a huge educated population base, can we start a pressure group that continuously mounts pressure on the governments? Through internet its always easy to get connected to a common discussion forum where people can share their views. The success will lie in getting students registered as soon as they join colleges.

Infact schools should take the first step in producing students with integrity. Moral science is one subject that we all were taught as children. Can this course be actually taken to the higher classes and if so in which form? Can we emphasize the need for social ethics and business ethics in the school level itself. Why wait for management institutes to take this role. And can ethics and integrity be taught at the age of mid twenties when our value systems have already got developed- that’s a question we need to answer. In my view, intermediate levels in collges, all professional education institutes and especially 10th standard classes should start incorporating this course in their curriculum. People should be made to realize that integrity helps build business and brand equity for organizations. History tells us that corrupt organizations have not been able to last long.

These are my views on public integrity and I feel that integrity if incorporated right from our childhood days in schools, will actually make us responsible citizens who will play a crucial role in the society to improve and clean it from all its ailments.  Good governance therefore starts from every individual and not from the public officers alone. If we perform our civil duties responsibly, if we pay our taxes, if we cast our votes, if we help each other in the society, if we do not take bribes or accept bribes, if we voice our opinions whenever anything goes wrong, if we can form pressure groups, if we will not accept opaque systems and policies, if we allow the press to perform its duty without fear and force, if we can educate each other, if we can teach our children not to do or face whatever we have suffered due to systems that lack integrity- we can definitely build a society that thrives on integrity and then  good governance will not be the only result but will be a part of a larger system that thrives on goodness, fairness and happiness.