Probity at work

Most of us know that there are many more PNBs waiting to happen.
The worst we can do is point fingers at this government or the one before that. It’s not as
easy as Zanjeer or Mr. India or even Shahenshah where there’s a hero and there’s a villain.
And there’s a duel. Good wins over evil. We whistle. Feel good. Go home. Matter over.
When Satyam happened, remember what the folks from Raju’s hometown said – “sad that
he’s got caught”.
That was a telling statement.
Mind you, his hometown friends were very fine with him looting shareholder money and
company funds. They were just unhappy he got caught.
Today, it’s Nirav. Tomorrow, again another one will jump up and take Nirav’s place. Again,
he will be a jet setter, wearing Gucci and Canali, having photographs with the PM and the
FM, having a multitude of offices worldwide and again would have left India in time.
What’s the lowest common principle in all these stories. It’s Greed. Not just Nirav, the
bankers who enabled, the accountants who advised, the lawyers who knew what was going
on, the auditors who willingly ignored things, the people who moved the money and lastly the
extended business family who knew everything.
Many of us know his associate Mehul Choksi. Back from those Gitanjali days of the past. Are
we surprised?
If one just counts the number of people who were probably in the know, one would be very
surprised, it could be in the hundreds. Yet there was no whistle blower. Why? Don’t we have
good people in the country?
Remember, they exited the country in January. So, they knew something that others didn’t.
They knew that the law, though slow, was catching up. They had the resources to go off to
Europe. The hundreds of others who made some small time skin during the transactions do
not have those resources to go off somewhere, they will be arrested first.
Others will pay for what Nirav did, will be the popular refrain. And I will say, the others were
equally complicit.
There has to be a place for probity in your life. The sense of good has to be there. Why
would you junk those ideals for some money that in this day and time, you really cannot
show.
But it’s what people do. Unfortunately.
Kickbacks. Quid pro quo. Payments in shell companies. Son in University abroad being
supported by dubious bank accounts. Trusts of nefarious kinds. Moving money through a
plethora of companies for clean ups. Dowries. Gifts.
I can keep going. The government cannot do everything. It cannot ring fence a shrewd
operator all the while. Because the good people will feel stifled.
But that’s what is happening. As we keep seeing the rich guys default on loans and walk off
into the sunset, unscathed, we know that the rules shall be tougher for us who seek to be
entrepreneurs in this nation.
The gates will not open easily.
And crony capitalism will keep holding sway!
Jai Hind is only a shout, for now. Just a little bit more probity and it could be a rallying cry.
A bit more goodness.
#BeGood #Probity #NoGreed