The Hindu Business Line : Janus-faced

HAVE you noticed the marked dichotomy in the behaviour of the same big shots when they are before people in the mass and when they are approached by one of those very people in the throng as an individual?

Similarly, they are Janus-faced in their reactions to abstract concepts and when they are to be applied to meet concrete requirements.

How beguilingly sweet and deferential Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, leaders of political parties, elected representatives and other potentates look when they greet those gathered in their thousands to hear them! How concerned they are for their welfare and how keen to solve their problems!

How still like statues and respectful beyond measure candidates for elections stand for hours before voters with folded hands and a permanent grin soliciting their support! And how disdainful after they are elected!

The higher echelons in the corporates too present different faces to people at large on the one hand and on the other, to individuals wanting to contact them for help in some matter.

For instance, their honey-dripping advertisements installing the people on the pedestal of deities with boasts of customer-paradise, instant service and the like bear little relation to the treatment an average customer gets when he makes a complaint or is in need of a service.

The same way, everyone in government, public sector and private firms is delighted to subscribe to, and wax eloquent on, accountability and transparency as abstract concepts.

But try accessing by phone or in person any of the VIPs who, only a moment ago, was humility personified before people in the mass: You will face an impregnable firewall of arrogant aides in various trappings who will put you off peremptorily.

You will also find getting a response to your letter or message from any of the supposedly civilised bigwigs a frustrating experience.

For all the talk of right to information, one finds extracting a tooth less painful than extracting information from those in authority, whatever be the organisation. Even retired officials are given short shrift by serving functionaries who were their erstwhile colleagues in service. So much for transparency.

All in all, the feeling of the person-in-the-street is that things are getting worse, instead of getting better.

B. S. Raghavan

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