For writing the profile of RI President Nominee Bharat Pandya, I sought a brief quote on his leadership qualities from two senior Rotarians who know him well — past RI President K R Ravindran, and past RI Director Raju Subramanian. A common thread that ran through both the quotes pertained to his integrity. While PRID Subramanian said Pandya had the ability to “inspire by the integrity of his leadership,” PRIP Ravindran talked about him being “immovable in principle,” and added: “He has never once confused holding office with doing the work.”
That was striking indeed; in a 4-line quote from two different people, “integrity” emerged as a principal quality of RI’s incoming top leader! That is how important integrity is… in defining a person, a leader, an institution and even a country. But quite often in all these areas, most of the times when people sing hosannas to ethics and integrity, it is not much more than lip service being paid.
In theory and public and private debates people across the world do give a lot of importance to integrity. Small wonder then that the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) brought out by Transparency International every year gets a lot of international attention on which nations are among the most honest and which ones need to step up their act. Sad to say that year after year our country comes in the second category, with the Scandinavian countries taking the pride of place at the very top of the list.
In the 2025 CPI Index, Denmark scored the first rank followed by Finland, Singapore, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. India was at an unseemly 91st rank, tying with Maldives, Morocco and Tunisia and just a tad better than Ethiopia! If it’s any consolation, the US was only at the 29th rank, along with the Bahamas. European countries such as Germany, Netherlands, Ireland and the UK did better. Japan and Bhutan, to their credit, got the 18th rank.
While it requires a mammoth, long-term and herculean effort to improve a country’s integrity index, as always, charity begins at home. Individuals who are honest and truthful and keep miles away from corrupt practices might not be able to put up huge business enterprises, but they would certainly sleep better at night. But to be individually honest and principled, and close your eyes to the fraud and corrupt practices taking place around you is not enough. Fortunately, we in India do have a history of sending out corrupt governments lock, stock and barrel.
But that one vote we exercise once every five years, even though extremely important, is not enough. We have to remain constantly vigilant to spot and speak out against injustice, dishonesty and corrupt practices happening around us. If our Gen Z can take to the streets to safeguard the following of strict principles in our education system, so crucial to their future, surely the older generation too can remove their blindfold, open their eyes and fight for justice and truth. Just mouthing the words of the Four-Way Test is not enough…. those words have to be understood, internalised and put into action. So that sometime in the future, when we say Jai Hind, these words are much more than a hollow slogan, and their true meaning and spirit resonates far beyond our borders.
Rasheeda Bhagat