When no father, like me, has to grieve because his child was killed for honesty

Everywhere there is lawlessness.

India will be empowered if honest people like Manju, who act against illegalities, who don’t take bribes should be able to work in this country. Their lives should be safeguarded. In India, people believe that if you act against corruption, you will not survive, that you are in danger.

That has to change.

From what I have heard since my son’s death, there have been around five IIM Lucknow graduates who joined oil companies in India as sales managers. After seeing the situation that prevails on the ground, three of them are said to have reportedly left. One IIM-L student, who was earlier in BPCL and was a friend of Manju’s, visited us after his death. She told me, “Uncle, I have seen the malpractice, I could not do anything, I left.”

Take my own case as an example. I am nearing 58 years, until I was around 35, I followed a principle that I won’t give a bribe to get any work done. I obtained my driving license, my house-building permit without paying a bribe. To obtain the khata (ownership) certificate for my house, I was made to run around for nearly a year, but I refused to pay a bribe.

I realised then the amount of time and energy I had spent to get the khata. If I had paid Rs 50 on the first occasion that the clerk at the government office asked me to do, I would have got my khata much sooner.

Like President A P J Kalam said we are confident of driving without a license in this country because we are sure that if we pay Rs 50 to the policeman who stops us, we will get away. There are only a fraction of people in this country who stand by a no-bribe policy. That fraction has to increase.

We need a nation that respects its laws 100 per cent. We need a nation where those who break the law pay for it, not slip through the loopholes. What has happened in the Satyendra Dubey case? It took months before the police said they had got the alleged killers, one of them even escaped. What happened to the complaints he made?

Our country is moving forward. We now encourage multi-national corporations to do business out of India. We are constantly in touch with developed countries and people from these countries, we know how they live, what they believe in. We must respect the law like they do in their empowered countries.

For, until there is respect for the law, honest people have to be very careful. I told my son that when he faced problems, he should act like other officers. He said there had been no one at Lakhimpur for a while. Even if there were some, I know Manju was his own man, hated to follow others’ examples. What he thought and decided was usually the final word.

India empowered to me is when his or any son’s or daughter’s final word isn’t a dying declaration in the line of duty.