Honesty cannot be divorced from spirituality as it has to do with morality. However, the world over, the tendency to follow vested interests undermines this process. What does one do about it?

First, I shall explain what I understand by spirituality.Anything that is legal, moral and leads to peace, happiness and equanimity comes under the purview of proactive applied spirituality which emphasizes more on prevention rather than cure . It has more to do with correct thinking since incorrect thinking leads to wrong action and undesirable consequences. It is concerned more to solve problem at the cause level than at the effect level( Running after different types of meditations and divine knowledge).

“It is discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit” - Noel Coward

I must explain the market context of honesty. USA has to intervene in India- Pakistan disputes because of the implications involved. The US as is well known has no love for anybody except its interests. Supposing there is a nuclear holocaust in the subcontinent, the amount that the western nations will have to spend in aid out of both humanitarian concern and would be much more than the diplomatic costs involved in mediation. The US is being honest to its own interest and that is what honesty is all about-vested interest.

Dishonesty unfortunately is not so dangerous whether for US itself or the whole world . The collapse of giant companies like Enron does not result in any loss of life and it remains to be seen what losses are incurred and punishments meted out. Only if dishonesty becomes so dangerous that it directly imperils the lives of lots of people, will there be any serious attempts to solve such problems because public memory being short, everything is forgotten after the initial outbursts.

It is said that without danger one cannot go beyond danger. In a country like India where liberalization is introduced only after it becomes inevitable, wearing seat belts is made compulsory almost two decades after they were introduced in cars when accidents got out of control, flyovers and timers are introduced only when traffic goes beyond control and even chief ministers are changed only at the onset of elections, who bothers for a thing like honesty unless it getting out of control directly and adversely affects the lives of many.

We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy- George Bernard Shaw

For every dishonest broker like Harshad mehta or Ketan parikh, there are lakhs of brokers who get adversely affected, small investors run scared and genuine companies cannot make new issues. Besides the general tendency these days to usurp somebody’s payments taking advantage of the legal loopholes is making businessmen shy of entering businesses where credit is involved. If everybody starts thinking like this, it will adversely affect the business scenario and job prospects.

Without trust and confidence, people don’t take risks. Without risk, there is no change. Without change organizations and movements die –American Educators

First it has to be realized the “Honesty is the best policy” actually implies “ Honesty is the best policy in the long run” Practical ways have to be thought out to solve the problem because corruption has become a non-issue in elections as everybody is perceived corrupt. When one considers that one third of the top fortune500 companies lost their positions within a span of a decade, out of top 50 families since independence only 7 are surviving and post liberalization the several top companies have lost their places in the top 100, one has to be extremely frugal if one wants to remain honest for a lifetime.

“You cannot make people honest by an act of Parliament.” – Anonymous.

Nobody can declare on face value that honesty is undesirable. The issue is how to make it practicable for all people on all issues for a lifetime. In one management book it was given that if the difference between the juniormost and the topmost executives is more than 5 times, that means that the top management is greedy. In Japan it is 6 to 7.5 times but in India it can be 50 times. Unless the top management follows voluntary and responsible socialism like Infosys, no headway can be made. This and other issues should be resolved practically.