It is the season of digging out the dirt, clean ups (cosmetic though they may be) and blowing whistles shrilly enough to give millions of pressure cookers a complex
It is the season of digging out the dirt, clean ups (cosmetic though they may be) and blowing whistles shrilly enough to give millions of pressure cookers a complex. As the government starts to show that they are ready to give corruption the boot, whistle-blowing has caught the attention of the nation.
Recently, Ratan Tata too, caused eyebrows to go up and disappear into foreheads when he claimed that the group did not start an airline because a Union Minister had asked for a bribe of Rs 15 crore. Tata claimed in his speech on business ethics, they shelved the plan to start an airline because he would not be able to sleep knowing he had paid a bribe. All hell broke loose after Ratan Tata's comment. There are people who have lost sleep wondering why Mr Tata did not name the minister who had asked him for a bribe. Is it because the revelation came years after he was asked for a bribe? Or, would there be any legal trouble? Or, this allegation is difficult to prove?
There is a sense of disappointment, a sense of incredulity even that a person of the stature of Ratan Tata did not name the Union Minister. If, Mr Tata for whatever reason could not name the person who asked him for a bribe, if he blew the whistle but it evinced a squeak, not a full piercing shriek, shrill enough to set skeletons jangling in fear in cupboards, then what hope is there for a layperson wishing to expose corruption?
The common man surmises then that when one of India's biggest business honchos cannot name a person who asked for a bribe, how can they even think of exposing something known as the greasing palms syndrome?
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As it is, people's courage to expose corruption, even if they have just started thinking about blowing apart the cover of a powerful lobby or person is severely chipped when one reads about murders of Right to Information (RTI) activists. In India, we are practically weaned on the notion that corruption is ingrained in the system, try to erase it and you end up paying at times, with your life.
Ratan Tata would have given courage to so many aspiring whistle-blowers if he had spoken out. In this way, he opened the lid, let the steam out with a hiss but closed it shut again, refusing to elaborate. The Nano man needs to show a sign of a spine of (Tata) steel.
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