When Wrong Becomes Normal

We failed our Nation

Sameer Rekhi

rekhi7sameer@gmail.com

There is nothing unusual about admiring prosperity. It's a natural instinct. Every generation hopes to lend to its children amenities such as a larger home, a successful business, a good education and financial security. India's economic progress in the years after independence, has provided opportunities that earlier generations could scarcely have imagined. That is what is worth acknowledging before asking any further question.

Money and its changing Colours

The colour of money is an ethical construct, denoting the source from which it is earned. As India grew, money or its influence became visible in places where it had not been a primary factor, earlier. Let us explore this assumption further. A bridge only needs to be built well. A medicine asks only to be genuine. An examination should only be fair. Justice must be blind. None of them recognises wealth, influence or status. Bridges carry people across rivers. Medicines heal. Schools teach. Courts dispense justice. They are supposed to be as such, without exception. Then, one morning, a bridge collapses. Another day, an examination is cancelled because the question paper has been leaked. A hospital discovers counterfeit medicines in its supply. A newly built highway caves in after a few spells of rain. This is where the colour of money begins to show. The headlines arrive suddenly. The full story does not. Every headline has a history that seldom finds space in the newspaper. It is rarely the story of one person or one decision. More often, it is the accumulation of many ordinary decisions, each too small to become news by itself. The result of which is calamitous. Taken separately, each appears too insignificant to alter the course of events. Together, they do. By the time the consequences become visible, they are no longer private. They belong to everyone. Perhaps that is why public failures seldom begin in public. They begin much earlier, in ordinary moments that attract little attention while they are taking place. When we read such headlines, do we see only the event? Or do we also wonder about the long chain of ordinary decisions that led to it? And those small decisions were not just decisions. They were a manifestation of the new culture we were adopting. No questions asked. No eyebrows raised. No foot put down.

The Silent Metamorphosis

The change is easier to see now because it has entered ordinary life. A person says he will come at ten and arrives at eleven without much apology. A business commitment is discussed at length and then quietly altered. A promise made yesterday is explained away today. Nobody is particularly surprised. The same ease has entered public conversation. A statement is made in the morning and denied in the evening. A person caught on camera can still insist that nothing happened. Facts are no longer potent enough to settle an argument. There is often another version waiting to take their place. It is not only public life. A contractor who cuts corners may still speak proudly about the road he has built, till it caves in. A businessman who uses two bill books to evade GST may complain about corruption.. A person may speak passionately about honesty and quietly get an unmetered power connection. These contradictions are no longer extraordinary. Perhaps that is what makes them worth pondering over. There was a time when being caught in a lie brought embarrassment. Today,ironically, the embarrassment can sometimes belong to the person who exposed it. Greed too has acquired a more comfortable language. A larger house is success. A more expensive car is achievement. An extravagant wedding is hospitality. An international holiday is adventure. Again, there is nothing wrong with prosperity. What has changed is the ease with which prosperity is equated with achievement. The old discomfort with excess has weakened. So has the disdain for deception. A person who changes his position to suit the audience is called practical. Someone who refuses to compromise is called rigid. Conviction can appear inconvenient in a world where changing one's stance is mistaken for flexibility. A public statement is made to mean different things to different people. An officer who speaks up can find himself transferred, isolated or hounded. Such behaviour rarely produces an immediate crisis. It produces something quieter. People begin to qualify what they hear. They listen to the words, but also to the person saying them. They wait to see what happens afterwards.The value of a promise once rested largely on the person who made it. Now, increasingly, the promise itself seems to have been reduced to lofty words. The same applies to public institutions. A citizen who expects a favour may not necessarily be corrupt. A person who seeks a recommendation is not necessarily dishonest. Circumstances matter. But when connections repeatedly become more useful than competence, or influence more valuable than fairness, people notice. They adjust. They stop expecting too much. They learn where to call, whom to approach and which promises to confirm. This is where the past meets the present. The habits we tolerated did not disappear with us. They travelled forward. Children watched adults. Younger colleagues watched seniors. Citizens watched those in authority.

Much was learnt without being taught. We reap what we sow. Not as a moral rule, but as a fact of life. When lies become common, people stop trusting easily. When greed is rewarded, modesty begins to look foolish. When words and actions no longer match, words slowly lose their value. The loss is not measured only in scandals or large failures. It is measured in the small hesitation before believing someone. In the need to ask for assurance in writing. In the instinct to check what should once have been accepted on trust. In the quiet feeling that one should keep a little distance. Perhaps this is the most visible change of all. We have not stopped using the old words. We still speak of honesty, integrity, duty and trust. We still use them in our speeches, our institutions and our everyday conversations. What has changed is our faith in the words. We have become less certain that these words will be followed by conduct. A commitment may be spoken without the resolve to honour it. The words have survived. It is their meaning in practice that has begun to weaken.

(The author is a retired IPS officer of AGMUT cadre)