Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. Thats roughly how wikipedia defines diplomacy and further labels diplomates as essential peace makers. The Union Publc Service Commision after a year long gruelling examination selects administrators and diplomates. The ones who reach to such a dignified position are the best educated, talented and intelligent lot of the country. But alas education , talent or intellect never guaranteed morality . Thats what reflected in the bit of news I read today . Two diplomates have been recalled from services due to their sexual misconduct. Thankfully the foreign secretary being a woman took stringent action and called for zero tolerance on the issue. One officer serving in an Indian Mission in London was recalled because of assaulting his wife . The other was posted at a permanent mission of India in UN was recalled for allegedly misbehaving with a female copassenger on a New York bound Air India flight.
The peace makers are beating up their wives and the negotiators are crossing the limit of decency. What is wrong with these men? Is it that these were isolated cases of perversion and violence ? or is it the tip of the iceberg? So much so for the grand selection procedure by the government . These men who were supposed to be the epitome of etiquette are shaming the country internationally. These incidences again bring out the fact that we live in times where morality has come to nadir. School boys are raping and murdering their classmates and the people who one would expect to have exemplary behaviour are in news for sexual misconduct. I recall a few lines of W.H. Auden's poem...
The shield of Achilles..
She looked over his shoulder
For athletes at their games,
Men and women in a dance
Moving their sweet limbs
Quick, quick, to music,
But there on the shining shield
His hands had set no dancing-floor
But a weed-choked field.
A ragged urchin, aimless and alone,
Loitered about that vacancy; a bird
Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone:
That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept.
Women are being harassed in schools , work places , while commuting and are battered at homes. The two women victimized in the above incidences were definitely educated and empowered yet they had to go through the physical and mental trauma before any action was taken. Is the recall enough in the above cases? Why is that we have failed so bad in inculcating morality and good behaviour in the male population? Is it not time that the morality be included in true sense in our society and educational system and not as a mere tactic to restrict women?
The peace makers are beating up their wives and the negotiators are crossing the limit of decency. What is wrong with these men? Is it that these were isolated cases of perversion and violence ? or is it the tip of the iceberg? So much so for the grand selection procedure by the government . These men who were supposed to be the epitome of etiquette are shaming the country internationally. These incidences again bring out the fact that we live in times where morality has come to nadir. School boys are raping and murdering their classmates and the people who one would expect to have exemplary behaviour are in news for sexual misconduct. I recall a few lines of W.H. Auden's poem...
The shield of Achilles..
She looked over his shoulder
For athletes at their games,
Men and women in a dance
Moving their sweet limbs
Quick, quick, to music,
But there on the shining shield
His hands had set no dancing-floor
But a weed-choked field.
A ragged urchin, aimless and alone,
Loitered about that vacancy; a bird
Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone:
That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept.
Women are being harassed in schools , work places , while commuting and are battered at homes. The two women victimized in the above incidences were definitely educated and empowered yet they had to go through the physical and mental trauma before any action was taken. Is the recall enough in the above cases? Why is that we have failed so bad in inculcating morality and good behaviour in the male population? Is it not time that the morality be included in true sense in our society and educational system and not as a mere tactic to restrict women?
