CHARACTER, COUNTRY AND CORONA

Can you imagine one thing that would have made a big difference to the current pandemic? It could have saved us all the trouble, saved so many lives and given us freedom from corona!

 

The first time when it started, people coming from outside did not have the Integrity to check themselves for the infection and they simply walked into the country.

 Later as the infection started spreading and we had a method of checking the temperature of people at the airport, what did they do? The people who were well-to-do and well educated, showed absolute lack of character and took paracetamol Tablets to hide their fever.!! One small pill for a man but a big pillage for the mankind!

Whom have they fooled?  - their countrymen or their own selves?

The individual character of a person could have been be the first step to arrest the coronavirus!

 

Honestly, how many of us have the moral courage to tell our neighbours or our friends or anyone on the road, to wear a mask? Nobody wants to risk the rebuff.  ‘Mainu Ki?’. ‘How-does- it- make- a -difference- to-me’   attitude.  Now, what is this, if not lack of character. what was Sam Manekshaw’s definition of moral courage? ‘The ability to distinguish right from wrong, and having done so, be prepared to say so, irrespective of the consequences’.

 Do we have it in us?

 And by the way, why should there be a need in the first place to tell a person. What about his own integrity? As a first step the individual himself must be self-disciplined to wear the mask and if not, then should be humble enough to accept his fault when pointed out. The issue could be resolved in the two steps of integrity and moral courage. The third and rare step should be that Police force should come into play. If first two steps work well, then there should be no reason for any penal deduction for not wearing a mask.

 Moreover, it is war like situation. During a war, all soldiers wear camouflage colours to protect themselves from the enemy fire. Nobody says that he is not in mood to wear green or would like red or blue colour. One silly mistake by a soldier can cost him not only his own life but that of the whole platoon. Exactly similar way, Mask is the ‘National Uniform’ today to fight the Corona War. Not wearing it is not only risky to one’s own self, but others too. You can be shot by the ‘Enemy Corona’!

  Unless and until the Nation becomes a priority Number one for each one of us, things may be difficult to improve. 

Today, we see that even after one year, people have not learnt their lessons.  They are trying to make money by playing with the lives of people!!

For some people, money is more important than the lives of somebody’s   father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter. That too during a national pandemic.

Making duplicate medicines, selling empty oxygen cylinders, hoarding and black marketing, charging exorbitantly for ambulance, hospital admission and even cremation!

 And these are not poor ill-educated people whom we generally shun away as dirty and characterless people.

These well fed, well read, suited booted elite of this country who are trying to suck the blood of their own brothers and sisters during a national war. Yes, it is war which is on.

We have heard so many war stories where a soldier has sacrificed his life trying to save his comrades. We have had several martyrs whom we honour every year. But surely, they are going to turn in their graves today and wonder why have they made their supreme sacrifice for such people!

Forget about sacrificing lives, this dishonest community is not even ready to shed a few bundles of paper notes.!!   where are we leading to? What has happened to the mankind?  The long journey of Homo Sapiens need not end this way.

 Coming to loyalty, how many people were loyal to their maid servants and others during the pandemic. The Salaried class, the top 30% of this nation, crème de la crème of this country, was unable to look after the bottom 30%!  Why could they not pay them the monthly salaries?  They were finding it difficult to pay even Rs 600- 800 to their maid servants. That’s just about eight thousand for ten months. This would not have made any dent to their financial position but certainly would have saved the maid’s family from starvation. This shows the material one is made of. 

Similarly, how many business men paid their employees? They did not bother to exhibit any loyalty to their workers, during a national crisis.  It would have saved the mass exodus and in turn reduced the spread of pandemic. In fact, we would have settled down by now and they could have done roaring business, instead of slipping into second year of crisis. Their character could have saved a lot of trouble, both to their workers and their business.

Recently the Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog wrote about continuing the   infrastructure projects which could get the economy back on rails. Here he spoke about physical infrastructure. Yes, that is one way forward and has to go hand in hand. But what we are discussing here is Moral infrastructure. This is something that cannot be seen, it is intangible and yet can make a definite impact on our lives.  While physical Infrastructures can be felt and exists on ground, the moral Infrastructure exists in hearts and minds of people, in our culture, traditions, habits and best practices.

We need to have a Moral Infrastructure Development Program.  A holistic approach to building of a National Character. It has to start from the womb. we all know that babies come with a clean slate and it is ‘we the people’ who write their future. We are certain that the govt and several other organisations and institutions are doing their best for the country in terms of ethical practices, but evidently it is not enough. Lot more needs to be done. In fact, our forefathers did put us on a right path but somewhere down the line we have wavered. Probably we need to reset our direction and get back on the right track. We need to tweak our old habits and get out of the ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude. If we had a strong character, it is quite certain that we could have been saved and the effect of corona could have been reduced a lot.  This again is an issue which could be of concern to Niti Aayog.

 

There is no doubt that if we all practiced what we preach and stood up to our convictions, the pandemic could be controlled and we would be walking without a mask.

 Is anybody listening?

 

 

 Maj Gen K Eswaran.    

 Author is a retired Army officer and founder of   Help and Serve Public Charitable Trust.