The latest damning report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) exposes the blatant acts of omission and commission by the Goa Government besides the rampant corruption and other serious malpractices. Like the Lokayukta’s report the Chief Minister should now not tell us that the CAG report and the directions within are also merely recommendatory.
Persons in Public life are expected to be moral exemplars of morality and ethics as they have pledged to uphold and defend that realm. There is no dividing line between their personal and public life. Private lives of public figures are wide open to public scrutiny. What they do in their private life matters and does impact their public responsibilities. Can they be ethical in public if they are unethical in private? Their private life reveals more about morals than their sound bites.
The French Nobel Prize winning Author and Philosopher Albert Camus had rightly said “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world”.
Although old bad habits may die hard for the CM and his government in constant denial of the truth they must lead by example and urgently face reality and scrutiny. As public representatives, they have a solemn duty to always strive to fulfill the aspirations of the people and to uphold the dignity and sanctity of the institutions they represent. They must always execute their responsibility bestowed on them by the people honestly and transparently, free of corruption or bias of any kind. Nobody is above the law especially not the very people that legislate the law for others to obey.
We cannot afford to have wolves in sheep’s clothing!
