Dr Vijaypat Singhania, noted industrialist and Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, has said India will need hundreds of Hazares to even make a dent in deep-rooted corruption.
Addressing the 47th convocation at the institute on Saturday evening, he said, “In recent times, the 'corruption fever' has been reignited by a former senior-most Minister of the Government of India, who built it into the system so deep that many more generations will be buried under it. Not one, I dare say, it will take a hundred Hazares' to even make a dent."
“Our thinking has changed, our values have degraded. Does our institute teach the future administrators how to analyse its root causes and how to rectify them?, asked Dr Singhania, who relinquishes office at the IIM-A by this month-end.
He observed that India inherited corruption from the past. “The British made the Maharajahs corrupt, the Mahrajahs bought the Thakurs, who bought the Zamindars and the Collectors, and so on it went down the line.”
“Out of 176 countries surveyed for corruption, India comes at number 4. When I told a senior politician that this was shameful, he said ‘look at the brighter side, there are three countries more corrupt than us!’” he lamented.
He felt that lack of education prevents Indians from thinking of alternatives, or the long-term consequences of their actions. “I ask the parents to teach their kids not only what their children should do, but more important, what they should not do. Can this short-term approach to making quick money here and now, be converted into a philosophy for our long-term welfare?”
He also lauded those IIM-A graduates who have contributed to the society. “A significant proportion of graduates of the institute have taken the path less trodden and become entrepreneurs; many of them have established organisations that work among the poor and less privileged in society. Over the years, the alumni of the institute have contributed immensely to both the economic and social development of the nation.”