This post comes at the heels of my last exam, that of Engineering Ethics. Although some of it may sound ridiculously obvious, here’s what we’re taught:
1. Honesty-in speech, thoughts action, beliefs and conduch.
2. Various theories about ethics. Just a bunch of opinionated blokes with nothing better to do than formulate theories about “right action, conduct…”
3. Whistleblowing-Engineer thinka himself as saviour of masses. He gonna blow-whistle, blow-whistle and continue saying he’s working with a bunch of ethically disoriented till it costs his life.
And that’s what happened. Not once, not twice, but quite a few times over again.
Satyendra Dubey was an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur. An exceptionally hardworking student hailing from a family that wasn’t exactly well-off, he managed to crack the IIT-JEE, and remain in form for the 4 years he spent there. Being an alumnus of an institution that was ranked world no. 58 was almost synonymous with being in the upper echelons of his society. No wonder that his village came to regard him as their saviour. While most of his friends either went off to the “land of opportunities” or landed in MNCs with fat paychecks, Dubey preferred to stay close to his hometown, in Bihar, and serve an unforgiving bureaucracy. Straddled in a 4 by 4 room, he seeked to work with morals and values that was so uncharacteristic of his state. Corruption was rampant not only in the NHAI, where he began, and prematurely ended his career, but also in the other branches of civil service. Striving to right the wrong, he wrote a letter to the PMO, Prime Minister’s Office, stating the deplorable moral status of the employees, and certain not-so-clean practices involved in allocating contracts. His cover was blown, he was intercepted while going home, murdered, his suitcase burnt. Something very run-of-the-mill in a place where electricity is available only 3 hours a day due to illegal bypassing, where crime after 6 in the night isn’t something shocking to people, where bribery is a way of life. That night, someone lost a brother, someone a son, someone a colleage, someone a good friend, someone a confidant. A year later, one of the killers escapes and all the forgetful nation does is a snippet in a leading daily or a small news piece with the CM claiming that the killers will be caught. I’m sure people know better than to believe that outrageous piece.
Somehow, had he joined an MNC or opted to study higher, earning an amount substantial than the meagre govt salary, he might jus still have been around. Ethics sure as hell didn’t save him.
And I don’t doubt why. The book prescribed is by a Mike Martin, who’s ignorant of what lengths people in developed, stuffy bureaucracies go to to save their skins. Whistle-blowing seems ridiculous when the odds that you’re going to be stabbed are stacked high against you. Equality is still a perception and will remain so. Ethics cannot be taught when you’ve existed for 20 years, no longer the proverbial sapling that can be bent. Better yet, scrap the subject. I’m sure we could all do with a bit of breathing space.
