Duty, Intergrity And Honour

Have you ever found yourself fighting tooth and nail, just to be treated the way your position as an individual truthfully should be? At least at one point in time and place, yes.

Finding me in a similar situation had myself pondering upon some subtleties in our attitude towards responsibility and integrity. Having been lucky enough to have hands-on experience abroad, certain differences have become bold. But they are far from being beautiful. The highly attenuated sense of reduced dedication towards our duty is widespread amongst us in India at every single level of the nation’s demography, which has triggered numerous downfalls among us all.

Almost the entire concerned world is aware of the “great” acts of the CWG and the 2G Spectrum Scam which have stemmed from the top levels of the power ladder of the country. Jumping straight down to the youth I’d like to draw your attention to us: we, the students of India. If you ask yourself whether or not you are executing all your duties as worthy students of your institute and India, you won’t be sure. To me, this lack of responsible behaviour is not as pressing an issue as the great aftermath of administrative rules and regulations supposedly put in place to curb the attitude. I’m no saint; it’s just that the aftermath has hit me several times.

We have had cases where the Honour Code has been breached, property of the community has mysteriously disappeared and even books from our own library have been smuggled and sold illegally. This only results in tighter rules and penalties leading to little freedom. There are always possibilities of community spaces being locked away from the general public in return. Don’t be surprised if you’re frisked like a terrorist during exams or if you’re demanded to produce not just your ID card but also your entire bio data just to borrow a book from your library. Juxtaposing my experiences with the library officials in India to that in a foreign country where I was a visiting researcher for a small period, I feel a sense of let- down by my own people. It is like being openly told that we are not trustworthy and that our word of mouth is of no value.

It so happened that a student wanted to borrow a book which had been unavailable for days, for which he appeared in person at the official’s desk. Having just found it by chance, the student was unprepared with his ID card. He offered his scholar number and requested to match it with the recently collected personalized photographic and textual data in the master database. After he was forced by rules to run over and fetch his ID from a few buildings away, the official merely copied his scholar number off into the database and the book was issued. Now, what was the point of that?

To my fellow students: A plea, let’s get over this and start afresh like honourable men and women. Let not a single finger rise against us. Even though its clichéd, we are the future of India and our habits will reflect on our identity as a citizen of the country as well as individuals. There have already been such shameful cases in the past. Another cliché, it is truly a vicious cycle. You try to rebel against the rules and they will get back at you harder. Why not take a pit stop, refuel and refine ourselves and then join the straight track?

I will humbly restate that if we are expected to behave like responsible young adults it is absolutely necessary that we are trusted and treated like responsible young adults.