In his op-ed, It's not the market, Pratap Bhanu Mehta (IE,20/10) has rightly drawn our attention to the lack of integrity in the professions such as law,medicine, accountancy, management, academics etc. The professional integrity could have reduced, if not prevented, the lack of integrity in public life. The professional bodies have failed in their task. As he has pointed out societies cannot be held together only by coercion ( state) or money (markets). Norms and values in in life were called Dharma – that which sustains life and society – by our ancients.
Every thing today revolves around money but money alone cannot bring peace and happiness, not even self-satisfaction. Wealth really belongs to the society ( as society creates the environment for wealth) whether it is in the hands of an individual or the state and that is why Mahatma Gandhi advocated the concept of trusteeship. It is easy to follow norms when one considers himself as a trustee of the profession – every profession is a service to the society. It is time a reputed public-spirited institution brings together some of the leading lights of all professions, including politics, on a platform to discuss this issue and try to formulate some guiding principles of functional and institutional norms. It may set the foundation for a new society and a new state which is beyond the acquisitive societies created by capitalism and socialism.
October 21,2008.
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