Angelo

Indians, generally, are very proud of the rich heritage of their country. We have tall talks about the cultural depth of our nation. We talk about the rich natural resources of the past and the present. We are so proud of the origin of so many religions of the east from our nation. But, we don’t care a damn about our lack of integrity. Our education, cultural heritage and religious famous will have no meaning - will be absolutely irrelevant - if we Indians lack integrity. Gandhi is piquant cry about this nation was its unwillingness to be true - to be honest - to be integrated.

What is integrity? In Gandhi’s language or idea, creed, word and deed should be one. What we think should be preached and what we preach should be done. We should be ashamed to know that we Indians are least bothered about Gandhi’s most treasured value truth or integrity. Gandhi lamented once that we were at once worshipping him and unwilling to follow his ideas - especially truth.

Corruption rocks this country’s very foundation. Any problem can be routed back to one evil called CORRUPTION. The so called top brains of our nation, engineers, doctors, government servants (which include the top officials IAS, IPS, etc.), lawyers, bank officers, and down to attenders have no moral scruples in getting bribes or indulging in wrong practices. More than 75 per cent of the educated community firmly believes that corruption is not wrong. They indulge in all sorts of unscrupulous dealings to get their jobs done. Business has only one ethics - CHEATING. So many scams have left the economy of this country in dire straits.

Education and religion - the very foundation of civilized life of Indian psyche are at cross-roads. Only these two departments can transform at once a society at large and an individual. Unfortunately, in our country both these have failed miserably to transform or civilize a human heart. In fact, both have dramatically worked against civilization in our country. They have become a force to say the least: If the salt has lost its savior, where with shall it be salted?

Does India have hope of being rebuilt? If India has to be rebuilt, the very psyche of this nation should change. We Indians should go to the very basics of life - truth - honesty - integrity. If we join hands with Pilot and ask What is truth? then this century will go back to the pre-independence days. And another Gandhi has to be born!