Kiran Bedi's indiscretions: Let's be less judgemental

Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro, and one of India’s wealthiest individuals, is once believed to have sacked a employee who travelled from Chennai to Mumbai by second class, but claimed first class reimbursement because he was entitled to it. His logic: “At Wipro there are no exceptions. And there’s no price you are not willing to pay for doing the right thing.” A case of high ethics? Let’s see. In 2007, the World Bank banned Wipro for four years from participating in its consultancy projects because Wipro “violated the fraud and corruption provisions of the procurement guidelines, or the consultant guidelines,” besides offering “improper benefits” to World Bank staff. Still see Wipro as the archetype of high ethics? [caption id=“attachment_112617” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Kiran Bedi with Anna Hazare. AFP”]  [/caption] By the standards of Premji, Dhirubhai Ambani was certainly no saint. But in the book of success written by Ambani, who didn’t claim to be a saint, Premji is a hypocrite. Manmohan Singh is busy collecting certificates on probity from all and sundry. But he looked the other way when his own party members and allies were looting the treasury. But this is not about politicians and businessmen alone. The middle class supported the Anna movement even while knowing that it has been least concerned about its own minor acts of corruption – like bribing the traffic policeman for jumping a signal, or paying speed money to get passports quicker. Clearly, we are a hypocritical nation, where our professed values are sometimes (or often) at variance with our personal acts. So when Kiran Bedi is accused by The Indian Express of battling for a tough anti-corruption law even while doing the same thing that Premji’s employee did, we need to ask ourselves a few things: One, should people who campaign for a cause hold themselves to higher standards of probity than the average Indian? If yes, Bedi is clearly in the wrong. But before we say yes, we should ask ourselves whether we hold ourselves to the same high standards. My answer for myself is ‘no’. I can’t claim I have never done any wrong on any front. Two, should we try to separate the validity of a good cause from the all-too-human failings of the people who are battling for it? If yes, we need to acknowledge that only angels should head noble causes. We should abandon all good causes because some of us may be found wanting. But are there any angels around? Three, should we also recognise that there are forces trying to discredit the Anna movement – and bringing everyone’s character into question may be a good way to do it? It is a bit difficult to believe that everyone in Team Anna – from Anna himself, whose NGO has been named for some irregularities, to Arvind Kejriwal ( who has received notices from his former employee, the income-tax department), to the Bhushans ( remember the CDs and allegations of extortion made against them?)  - is grossly tainted. They may be guilty of aberrations, but probably not grossly tainted. By the standards of perfection demanded from our public figures, it would appear as if no cause is valid. My only point of disagreement with Kiran Bedi is not that she tried to save a few pennies by flying cattle class and billing her hosts for business class, but the explanation she offered for it. She said she did this deliberately so that her NGO could earn something from the invitations she received for speaking engagements. Now, I am not quite convinced. I would have been happier to hear her say: “Yes, I did it, in a moment of weakness.” We all do it. And for that reason alone we should not get too judgmental about Kiran Bedi.