Is conscience dead?

Is it surprising that there is an Educomp immediately after Satyam? If these frauds can occur in such large organizations that are well known and carefully tracked by the analysts, investment community, subject to lot of disclosure norms etc then one can imagine what could be the situation in lot of other organizations in the SME segment that are family owned. As a society we have started to value success as measurable by one’s bank balance or wealth more than anything else. I remember a survey that was conducted just after the Harshad Mehta’s infamous scam and an overwhelming majority of graduates from IIM had expressed their willingness to work with Harshad Mehta. The other day when the task force of senior leaders of Satyam was announcing the resignation by its CFO a recruitment consultant asked me for his mobile number. He was in demand rather than becoming an outcast. The end justifies the means, but we forget that the end and the means are not two different things. The end evolves from the means that we adopt. If we change the means the end doesn’t remain same as was initially decided. Just look at the Frankensteins that have been created under the pretext of the end justifies the means. Who created Saddam, Taliban or Al-Qaeda or Bhindranwale, who is closer home?

We are living in an age of advertisement which is one of the gifts from the west. Look at the commercial of any product starting from toothpaste to latest laptop or mobile. Each one of them promises Nirvana while carefully hiding its shortcomings. At the individual level also it is no different. Market is the God and you have to please the God at any cost and truth has taken a back seat in the bargain. There is tremendous pressure on everyone to project an image of his/her that is in demand in the market and the focus is on managing that image rather than the self. At the organizational level there are stretched targets that look impressive and have to be achieved by hook or by crook. Media is managed so that positive news is overemphasized and any negative news gets suppressed. Media itself is part of the overall business world and very few are aware of their responsibility or adhere to it in spirit. Independent analysis and reporting are few and far between. Once you see something as numbers, in print or in video its impact is very high and its truth is assumed or taken for granted. There seems to be some truth in the criticism that technological change has both positive and negative impacts and not always in equal measure.

Today’s mantra is anything is OK as long as you are not caught or you can hide it from others or what you are doing is not illegal. One would imagine the earlier valued concept of vivek or conscience has died a silent death. There seems to be an urgent need to remind ourselves of Asha’s song in Kaajal “ Toraa Man Darpan Kahalaaye; Bhale, Bure Saare, Karamon Ko Dekhe Aaur Dikhaaye; …… Jag Se Chaahe Bhaag Le Koee, Man Se Bhaag Naa Paaye”.