There may be more things that are not dreamt of in our philosophy, but none as true as Satyam. Shivam. Sundaram, words spoken through the ages, resonating today. But until we imbibe these words, we can careen along to evermore, creating Lokpals till monuments crumble to dust, and nothing will change

V Shantakumar

Let me start by saying that no one referred to or alluded to directly or indirectly or even by oblique association in the hereinafter musing is an idiot.

We are all, to paraphrase Marcus Antonius, intelligent men.

So hark, you keepers of public sensitivity, let not loose the dogs of war.
(As a child I was bitten by an Alsatian, and I can assure you I do not wish to relive that experience)

So here we all are, citizens of the republic, gathered to witness the coming of the Lokpal bill. We await this with some impatience now, if the reports are to be believed. And we want this to be enacted into constitutional law with pressing haste, for we all are quite weary, not of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, for we are a forbearing people, of equanimous and karmic disposition, but we are so tired of corruption, of the venal parasites who worse than vampiric bats suck the life force itself out of the body politic. We want to eradicate this with the same sense of purpose and determination that we used for smallpox and now for polio.

But do we?

The people who will not just pass the enacted laws need also to implement them. And they in all likely probability, though sounds of high dudgeon will be heard at such allusion to their probity and honour, are at the root of the rot.
It will behoove them not to pass such a law which may just come back to be their nemesis.

Or will it?

Even if the laws themselves held the “public servant” to account, who will take up arms against them?

The very system of jurisprudence in this country allows for presumed innocent even if proved guilty. And if you are of the political nobility, the chances of punishment befitting what should be a crime equivalent to treason itself are about as good as a snowflake in Rajasthan in mid-summer.

But we hope that as it was with the discovery of vaccines for many illnesses, in time, even if it takes years, we will be inoculated.

So when I read this piece below which I have reproduced verbatim from Plato’s republic, I was struck by the poignancy of the absurdity of our beliefs. We hope to engineer change by modifying the content of what we do. Change always happens only when the very context alters, a systemic revolution, a paradigm shift, to use the much abused term.
Read the wisdom:

SOCRATES: That any kind of mixture that does not in some way or other possess measure of the nature of proportion will necessarily corrupt its ingredients and most of all itself. For there would be no blending in such a case at all but really an unconnected medley, the ruin of whatever happens to be contained in it.

PROTARCHUS: Very true.

SOCRATES: But now we notice that the force of the good has taken up refuge in an alliance with the nature of the beautiful. For measure and proportion manifest themselves in all areas of beauty and virtue.

PROTARCUS: Undeniably.

SOCRATES: But we said that truth is also inclined along with them in our mixture?

PROTARCHUS: Indeed.

SOCRATES: Well, then, if we cannot capture the good in one form, we will have to take hold of it in a conjunction of three: beauty, proportion and truth. Let us affirm that these should by right be treated as a unity and be held responsible for what is in the mixture, for goodness is what makes the mixture good in itself.

(Phlb. 64d-65a)
In the Laws, Plato applies this principle to electing a government in the ideal state: "Conducted in this way, the election will strike a mean between monarchy and democracy”

So here we are almost three millennia later, looking at what should be the context of government. Which is supposed to be about the substance of and the practice of, as Socrates says, Good and Goodness. Good for all, Goodness in all.
How will a bill create this, how will we ensure this?
We do not think about this.

And here is the ultimate irony:
In the seal of the country, the Mission Statement as it were of the Republic Of India, there are three words.
Satyam. Shivam. Sundaram.

Truth. Grace. ( Read Proportion) Beauty.

There may be more things that are not dreamt of in our philosophy, but none as true as these words, words spoken through the ages, resonating today.

But until we imbibe these words, we can careen along to evermore, creating Lokpals till monuments crumble to dust, and nothing will change.

Until then, all of this will just be a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

(V Shantakumar is the former chairman & CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi in India and now the managing partner of Doing Think)