HONESTY IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST POLICY.(true story)

 

(Based on true stories)

BY K P PASWAN.

A Civil Servant in his early 30s was attending to a money laundering case in which a leading millionaire was accused of cheating the government. It was the month of August in India. There was irregular supply of electricity. Eminent lawyers, having sound knowledge of corporate affairs, were attending the case, and they were trying to browbeat the young Civil Servant by their forceful argument. Senior advocate, representing the businessman, put documents on the table and requested the Civil Servant to go through the documents.

 The documents must have weighed more than five kilograms. He talked of violating the fundamental rights of his client and demanded the closure of the case. After he finished his argument, second advocate shouted that the department harassed his respected client so much, that he had fallen sick and had been admitted in a private nursing home. He warned that his client was contemplating filling defamation suit against the department.

Officer's FINDINGS. When they finished their argument, the officer requested them to sit and addressed them. ‘Sir I have listened to your brilliant arguments and you advised me to go through the documents, Sir I accept that I cannot go through your documents, there is no violation of fundamental rights, you know the truth, it is not a murder case and there is no scope for analysis of forensic report as there is no such report. As far as your client is concerned, he is not recuperating in a nursing Home, but he is sitting out side of this building in the latest Mercedes and chewing tobacco’.

Years later the Apex Court uphold the findings and their Lordships simply reduced the amount of penalty. By that time the officer was no longer in service, his honesty did not pay, he quit the service and joined private firm outside of the country, and started making money by honest means. In this case dishonesty proved as the best policy.

SECOND CASE. This case is bizarre, but it is a true story, which happened in a metropolitan city in India. It is case in which morality and reality were sacrificed for personal gains and the person succeeded. This case has no parallel in the history of crime.

A foreign bank was situated near the central government office. A Watchman in his late 50 was a regular visitor to the central government office, with a view to lure the officers to have Credit Cards of that bank. The Watchman was sturdy and handsome, with grey beard and mustache, he was soft in his conversation with employees of the central Govet office. By caste he was a Brahmin, belonging to cow belt. The Officer was not a Brahmin by caste, but he was impressed with the behavior of the Watchman. The manager of the bank happened to be a British banker of white race and was fluent in Hindi. After six months the watchman visited and informed his well-wishers that he was going to retire after putting 40 years in service, and that he was finally saying good bye to this city

After six months, the watchman was going to receive heavy amount of gratuity with a bonus. He was given a tea party by his well-wishers in the Central Govt Office. After the departure of the Watchman from the bank, he was almost forgotten by his friends in the Central Govet Office. Than a strange thing happened. The Officer was sitting in his room, rummaging a file, when an attendant came and informed the officer that a young man wrapped in white cloth with a small club made up of bamboo was standing outside the chamber and was weeping and he wants to see you, and that his head was clean shaved. The officer’s own father was not keeping in good health, but there was no imminent danger. The man outside his chamber must have performed the last rites and as per Hindu traditions prevailing in Cow belt, he was supposed to wear a particular type of dress for at least 13 days and in some cases, even for more than forty days. Such type of cloth is known in India as KAFAN. The officer ran and opened the gate and to his satisfaction, the young man standing, was not his family member. The handsome man covered with KAFAN, asked the name of the officer and started crying loudly, attracting others. The officer brought the man inside his chamber and asked his name and purpose of visiting him.

The man in his late twenty introduced himself as Kumar, the son of the watchman of the foreign bank, with a post graduate degree in economics, and informed the officer that the watchman died of a massive heart attack, and that his last rite was performed in Kashi, the holiest of holy cities for the Hindus of India. The officer was shocked to hear the demise of the watchman and offered helps of any kind. The young man informed the officer that the bank offered him a Clerical post, on compassionate ground, but the problems were that all his documents were in Hindi and he needed the exact translations of all those documents including the Death certificated into English. 

After submitting the documents, he would be going to his home to complete the last rites on 13^th day of his father’s demise. It was easy task; the officer called the, in charge of Hindi Section of the office, and asked him to translate all the Hindi documents in English. After two hours all the translated documents were closely scrutinized by the officer and were attested. The young man left the office. Later on,  he became a Clerc in that foreign bank with decent salary. The British manager of the bank called a special meeting to mourn the death of devoted Watchman.

After nine months, the officer was passing through a narrow street of a particular locality to reach a Barber’s Shop, suddenly he came across a new Tea Stall, with sweets and other eating materials on display. A sturdy man in his early 60 was pouring special tea in a big jar, the officer was confused, the man had no thick mustache, but looked like the dead watchman of the foreign bank. The officer out of curiosity, and foolishly called him by his original name. The tea maker became angry and called a few men of the locality, who informed that the man was Mr Bhagat and not Mr Tiwari. The tea man told the officer to get lost. The confused officer left the place more confused.

 A few months later a middle-aged but high ranking police officer visited the Officer, and presented the translated and attested documents for recognition, the Officer recognized the documents and asked the officer reasons for scrutinizing the documents. The policeman informed the officer that perhaps the dead Watchman was alive and faked his death to claim huge sums of money from the foreign bank, but he was not certain. This particular case was becoming more interesting. The Bank sought clarifications from the Home Secretary of the particular state, who in turn sought information and duplicate certificates from the district, and also the manager of the Burning place of Kashi, where the dead watchman was taken for cremation and accordingly, death Certificate was issued. Every document related to the death of the watchman bore testimony to the truth and the case was dismissed by the trial court.

 The said bank merged with another foreign bank, and there was a scheme of trimming the staffs. The dead watchman’s son received a good amount of money and he left for his home. Meanwhile with passage of time, the watchman turned tea maker started a flourishing transport business in this metropolitan town with his son assisting him as CEO of the said transport company.

Finally established in his transport business, he confessed to some body that he faked his own death for financial gain and in reality, he was Mr Tiwari and not Mr Bhagat. But it was too late for initiating re investigation of this bizarre case.

It appears that in rural areas of India, identical name with surname are common. An elderly V, Tiwari, aged 90, died and his body was taken to Kashi for last rites. The cunning watchman of the foreign bank, in connivance with family members of the dead man, faked his own death as his name was also V. Tiwari. Rest is history

 OVERSEAS EXAMPLES Situation in foreign countries is more complex. In 1998 popular president of Colombia, Earnesto Samper was accused of receiving $6 million dollars from Cali Drug mobsters. The person who exposed the deal was none other than the president’s campaign manager Fernando Botero, who was arrested for defaming the president. But Samper was under fire and the general public demanded his resignation, the president refused to resign and suggested a referendum. Under pressure from all sides Samper hunkered down and accused his campaign manager being too close to Cali Drug Cartel.

This a famous incident of contemporary world, forcing president of US, Bill Clinton to pay serious attention to the case. The Congress, decertified Colombia, but waved economic sanctions. Decertification would mean aid cuts and increased tariffs on crucial exports to US. Worse, decertification hampered Colombia’s badly needed access to international lenders. President appeared unsympathetic and there was no body willing to defend Colombia under Samper. Fernando Botero who was put behind the bar, belonged to a famous family of Colombia, his father bearing the same name was a famous painter and Botero Jr, as a Defence Minister of Colombia had waged war on the Cali Cartel, overseeing the arrest of six of the Cali cartel’s top bosses.

 Botero plagued by guilt, summoned TV reporters to his jail and exposed Samper by revealing that the president knew about cocaine money from the start, and was seriously compromised in the affair. But the president Ernesto Samper was a skillful populist, the odd against him was enormous. Protesters supported by Nobel prize—winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez demanded a country with an honest president. As president Fernando Samper had promised exactly that---but in the eyes of his countrymen he had failed. Years later when documents were declassified, it was found that Samper received huge kickbacks from the drug lords of Colombia.

 Drug Cartels in every Latin American country is dominating national politics. One year ago, the former president of Mexico was accused of accepting donation from notorious Drug Trafficker Al Chapo who is languishing in high security jail in US.

 Coming to US, not only Gun Culture, but tax evasion and illegal gratification are common. President Trump was accused of tax evasion, for which he is being investigated. Inside trading is a criminal offence in US. Nearly four years ago an Indian with brilliant academic career and an executive of Stanley Morgan, faced the charge of inside trading for revealing secrets of trade deal to a SriLanka business magnet. All the famous US personalities including Bill Gates stood behind Indian, as he was also famous for doing charitable works. The Manhattan judge was unnerved, he declared, ‘The world is full with good people who sometimes commit crimes for which he must be punished’, the accused was given very lighter punishment.

 Coming to India again, we find money launderers cheated banks and fled to foreign countries, where they are living luxurious life. A former president of Pakistan, was nicknamed as Mr Ten percent, because as a minister his fixed rate was ten percent of total financial deal. There is hardly any political head in this world without charges of dishonesty. A woman PM of Thailand had to flee her country, when she was accused of accepting bribes from different sources. The famous woman president of South Korea was convicted for accepting bribes, from the management of famous mobile manufacturing company, SAMSUNG.

 FINAL THOUGHT. In view of true stories as described in this blog, it is easy to conclude that in modern age, honesty may be the best policy, but it has become a relative term. An ordinary clerk of a bank may be an honest person, but once promoted to the rank of manager, he is likely to become a dishonest man.  It is safe to say that honesty is always not the best policy.