By Paramjit Bakhshi
Going through the back issues of the ST which had piled up, during my prolonged absence from the city, two things struck me. First, that the problem concerning the traditional institutions still lay unresolved. This was expected. Hardly anything gets resolved here, smoothly and quickly. The second thing to catch my attention was completely unexpected. Apparently the government had spent seven crore rupees on buying drugs for male infertility. Ahem. Well, all of us can easily figure out, what that the real issue in this case was. Some unimaginative character, could not devise a more ingenious way, to siphon out the welfare manna. So he blended sex, money and power –the three elements driving most human activity, into one lucrative and juicy scam.
On the subject of juiciness, let me introduce – The Kamasutra- a book in our imagination, both juicy and scandalous. This perception is coloured by the editions, available at most bookshops, containing explicit artwork of couples, engaged in erotic postures. “The Complete Kamasutra”, translated by Alain Danielou, unabridged and with commentaries, is more than five hundred pages of text without a single picture. Juiciness aside, the reason d’ etre for mentioning this book, is its brilliant introduction, which offers a simple perspective to analyse, our everlasting liaison with corruption and economic stagnation. It enlightens us at the very outset, that life necessitates three kinds of activity. The first is the pursuit of money and material things, or artha, fundamental for survival. Beyond that we also need healthy erotic practice, or kama, to facilitate transmission of life from one generation to another. The third, ignored by most, is dharma or the discharge of moral and social commitments to ensure harmony and cohesion, rather than strife and turmoil in society. “The Kamasutra” rather than being a mere sexual manual thus formed, with the Arthashastra and the Dharamshatras, a trilogy guiding us to fulfilment, joy and peace.
In Meghalaya we have, as indicated by the census, our libidos intact, but do suffer deep rooted ethical and economic challenges. Instead of harking at every scam, or screaming about economic neglect, we need to rationally examine our predicament. For many years I was involved in imparting life skills to students in an institute. The one question I asked every batch was – “do you think honesty is a good policy?” Invariably eighty to ninety percent of the youth did not think it was. One well understood their sceptical response. In their own neighbourhoods the young see corrupt people doing amazingly well. They see dishonest politicians, government servants, suppliers, contractors, and businessmen all cashing in on the good life. They notice them owning multiple houses, swanky cars, going abroad and being treated with respect by everybody including the guardians of law. Even many religious leaders, in the words of Abdul Hameed Adam, “give the rich respect and glory as their prize, (and) fob off the poor with promises of paradise”. The young see honesty and hard work leading not to prosperity, but to servitude and misery. Thus when they hear moral lectures from priests, parents and teachers, they see through our hypocrisy, and choose a path of easy money and moral apathy. Since the rot here runs so deep, that even the so called protectors of society, are busy filling their pockets they cannot imagine a world any different. They remain unaware, that the ethos of Meghalaya is not the only one which operates in the wide world. And unless we make them see this aspect of global reality, their attitudes will hardly change. Of course exposure to the outside world is important, but even everyday examples can be used, to make them see things differently.
One developed simple ways of doing this. For instance one would ask them whether they brushed their teeth daily. Of course all of them did. When asked which brand of toothpaste they used, the majority invariably replied, “Colgate”. I would then tell them that this brand of toothpaste sells globally. It sells because the company consistently gives us a decent product at a fair price, unlike the majority of our politicians who sell only hollow promises. The manufacturers do not pack just a few tubes with the good material, and the rest with spurious stuff, as petty government suppliers often do. Our faith in the product makes us buy the product regularly, and this enables the company to make handsome profits year after year. In fact this one company probably makes more money, than the combined income of all the dishonest people we see around us. And there are literally thousands of such honest businesses in the country and in the world. So if one wants to get rich or to make it big, honesty is the only policy. Of course there are cases of corporate dishonesty, but this is rarely done by visionary founders of large companies, but mostly by fly by night operators and ambitious employees who in spite of their MBAs remain ethically illiterate. Since these dishonest corporate houses eventually collapse, the fact remains that the world runs because of honest people, and capability without integrity is of little value.
Insofar as our economic stagnation is concerned, the root of the problem lies, in our hypocritical attitude to honest money making. One needs to relook at our egalitarian mindset, which looks down upon honest wealth generation, yet allows people, in the garb of social or government service, to become rich clandestinely. The concept of “ease of business” is unknown here. Anybody wanting to start a legitimate business has innumerable hurdles to cross, irrespective of whether he is a local businessman, or an outside investor. Innumerable sanctions have to be got from various authorities, ranging from the headmen, municipality, district council, state government agencies and all these are not just time consuming but often require greasing the palms of many individuals. In addition to this, often some NGO’s have to be constantly humoured and entertained. If you consider that all legitimate businesses carry inherent risk, and then add all these factors, do you think any youngster in his right mind, would ever want to start a business here. He would either pay to get a government job, or start a NGO, or become a militant, or a budding politician, a government supplier or a contractor where all that is required is proximity to the powers that be, and one can make loads of money without much investment, risk or fear.
The two cities one visited this time were Ahmedabad and Bangalore, and coincidentally both went through a spot of trouble, during my sojourn there. Ahmedabad saw a spell of violence and subsequent curfew in some parts, as fallout of a rally organised by the Patels, demanding reservation. In Bangalore, Malleshappa Kalburgi, a scholar and academic of repute, was killed by motorcycle borne assailants. However, neither of these incidents are characteristics of these cities. Both cities individually, have GDPs which are at least fifteen times, the SGDP of Meghalaya. The first has been ranked third amongst the list of fastest growing cities by Forbes, whereas the second is known as the Silicon Valley of India. Sadly Meghalaya from being the God given Scotland of the East, is joining sister hill states, in becoming the Scamland of the East. Neither money driven militancy nor politically motivated agitations have helped the situation, but have only taken us further away from prosperity, towards misery and adversity. Our economy is in shambles, and like other North-eastern states, we are now on the threshold, of tearing our social structures apart, with two thirds of the state already lawless. It is useless for us to expect the politicians to correct this problem, because the majority of them have no moral authority, left to do so. And sadly very few of us, even have the integrity to advocate ethical behaviour in our homes, or in our localities, far less in the entire state.
Having lived here long enough, one is aware that most of us, who are critical of scams, will jump at the chance to scam some money ourselves. We, the electorate, are as corrupt and hypocritical, as the elected. However what is truly sad, is that our youngsters, devoid of opportunity and correct guidance, are following with increased gusto, the paths we have unthinkingly trodden so long. The bankruptcy of ethics is more alarming, because even the best of us have chosen to be, silent bystanders in the ongoing plunder of our meagre resources, by people who employ power, deceit, or violence to do so. Hakim Momin Khan Momin, a nineteenth century Urdu poet wrote a poem, which in its translation, went like this- “There are some who remain silent, but are sunk in deep surmise, Yes, they will speak the truth, But when the price of truth is on the rise.”
Well the price of truth and honesty in Meghalaya is at an all time low. Not surprisingly, so is our economy.
(The writer can be contacted at [email protected])