Saturday, July 31, 2010

Indians' unconcern for finality

It is a trite saying that India lives in eternity. Occidental anxiety to 'settle issues' and 'move on' is typically absent in India.

For instance, a judge may be allegedly venal; in case he or she is not politically backed, probes and investigations would follow. After these processes consume enormous time without nearing the truth in any way, impeachment proceedings may be set in motion which will meander along till cows come home. In the meanwhile, the judge may have retired, deceased or settled cosily abroad. Impeachment proceedings will get aborted at some stage or the other. In the event all are happy that all procedures have been gone through though the fact that no finality has been reached does not bother anyone.

This is a far cry from what obtains in the western countries. When the Barings Bank was bankrupted by a rogue trader called Nick Leeson, no time was lost in establishing his guilt and awarding condign punishment. He was duly imprisoned and released when the sentence was completed. He reinvented his life and is now one of the most sought after speakers on Risk Management. This is not an isolated case where justice was delivered in time, finality was reached and life moved on.

In India however such cases are few and far between. Resolution of the Satyam company's persona is one such rare event. (Of course, punishment of the fraudsters may not happen anytime soon.The lower court which is now seized of the criminal matter will take a lot more time to pronounce judgement. After that the promoters will certainly go on appeal to higher courts and ensure indefinite delay in judicial proceedings.) The company is not comatose only because the government took extraordinary pains to "showcase" our ability to wriggle out of a crisis.

It is too soon to forget how the Global Trust Bank was systematically plundered by the promoters who are yet to face justice. Indians have an enormous tolerance for lack of finality. Why is this so? Is this because we believe in rebirths and therefore look for continuity from one birth to the next and take it for granted that what is unfinished in the present birth will come to fruition in subsequent births ? Whereas the westerners seek to close their life accounts in what they believe to be the one and only birth, Indians tend to carry over from birth to birth and look for finality at the end of eternity which by definition never occurs.

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