Greedy Politicians or Industrialists: Blame the Society
The common rebuttal to anyone who blamed politicians or politics for the ills of society was that we elect them and they are part of the larger society so ultimately the blame is on us only. I always complained that with this line of reasoning politici...
By Parth Shah
The common rebuttal to anyone who blamed politicians or politics for the ills of society was that we elect them and they are part of the larger society so ultimately the blame is on us only. I always complained that with this line of reasoning politicians go scott free but no one says the same when we find a scandal among businessmen. That is, no one says businessmen earn pots of money because we voluntarily buy their goods and services (like we vote for politicians) and they also come from the same larger society so their values reflect our values. So when we meet a corrupt businessman, we should just blame ourselves, like we do in case of a corrupt politician.
Ramesh Ramanathan finally has put my complaint to rest. In Jan 15 Mint column he says:
The Satyam scandal is a painful and scorching lesson on the failings of the market…But there is a deeper and more unsettling angst. This has to do with ethics and values. Our actions come from our convictions. Our convictions are born of our values. In this sense, values are the fountainhead… And also instances such as Satyam, where an ambitious business family gets onto a tiger it doesn’t quite know how to dismount. The tragedy of the Raju brothers is that they are also victims of our society’s evolving value system, as we worship the gods of material success (my emphasis).
About Parth Shah
Parth J Shah is founder president of Centre for Civil Society, a think tank that promotes choice and accountability across public and private sectors. He is co-founder and Director of Indian School of Public Policy. Parth’s research and advocacy work focuses on the themes of economic freedom, choice and competition in education, property rights approach to the environment and new public governance. He recently edited Liberalism in India.