“Vanity my favourite sin”

Nuremberg trials are a series of military tribunals held by the allied forces who won the Second World War. These trials were held to prosecute members of political and military leadership of the Nazi Germany for their crime against humanity. In most of these cases, they were being prosecuted for what they did, for their obedience to their superior’s commands as expected from a disciplined officer of any organisation, more so of the armed forces. Therefore, a certain set of principals had been evolved to determine what constitutes war crime. These principals called the ‘Nuremberg Principles’ had been created by the International Law Commission of the United Nations.

It is now accepted at a philosophical level, that when we act as per the directions of the superiors, we also have the moral responsibility to assess the fairness of the actions and express our dissent when those actions are against the larger interest of the society.

The issues associated with ‘blind following of the order from the superior officer’ are not just a concern in military actions. We face it in our day-to-day life as an officer of the government or even of commercial entities. It is practically difficult for many of us to act on a moral choice to “blow the whistle” as the potential retribution of such action could have an adverse impact in our personal life.

In many cases, the individuals who have questioned the actions of their superiors have been harassed and had to suffer significant damage to their life and career. This include dismissal from job, coming in the way of he getting alternate employment, tarnishing his image so on and so forth.

Society has been trying to evolve legal structures to protect and encourage citizens to ‘blow the whistle’ when they come across un-ethical or fraudulent actions and to give them the right to demand information that could elicit truth.

The listing agreement between the stock exchanges and the companies has a provision (though still non -mandatory) that all listed companies should have a published ‘whistle blower policy’ for employees to report instances of unethical behaviour, actual or suspected fraud or violation of the Company’s code of conduct or ethics policy.

The “Right to Information Act” tries to provide a strong tool in the hands of the citizen to demand access to information regarding the actions of the government.

This legal enablement has helped to bring about more transparency in administration and corporate governance. One of the main criticisms against these provisions is that many a time these are misused to further private agenda, inter-personal conflicts or even to clog the pipes of the administrative machinery.

In spite of all these, India is still rated high on corruption both in private and government sector. The tag line of an article written by Mohan Murti (former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany) in Business Line titled “Is the nation in a coma?” reads “Europeans believe that Indian leaders are too blinded by new wealth and deceit to comprehend that the day will come when the have-nots will hit the streets”

Corruption is not just with respect to monetary returns for favours dispensed or deviation from law; it is also applicable to the actions of commission and omission by the so called clean and honest people, that pander to their needs of ego satisfaction, self glorification and just plain megalomania. As John Milton played by Al Pacino in the award winning movie quips “Vanity definitely my favourite Sin”. And un-ethical actions that satisfy this vanity is equally despicable as the actions that layers the pocket.

While continuous evolvement of the legal framework can help the cleansing process, each us has a responsibility; the responsibility to act ethically and to question ethical violations (especially the ones which are technically and may be even legally correct) that hinders the path to building a cleaner society that respects decency and fair play more than the smell of greenbacks and self edification.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power”. Abraham Lincoln