UPSC Ethics Simplified | Voice of Conscience — the concept

Lalan Kumar, 33, gave a cheque of Rs 23,82,228 to the registrar of BR Ambedkar Bihar University (BRABU) on Tuesday. The college is under the aegis of BRABU, a state university.

“My conscience does not allow me to take a salary without teaching,” Kumar told the media on Wednesday. “Even during online classes (during the pandemic), there were only a handful of students present for Hindi classes. If I take a salary without teaching for five years, it would be academic death for me.”

Founded by freedom fighter Nitisheshwar Prasad Singh in 1970, Nitisheswar College has been affiliated to BRABU since 1976. It offers undergraduate courses in Arts and Science.

While the college’s principal, Manoj Kumar, questioned Kumar’s motive in returning his salary — “it is not just absenteeism [of students] but a pressure tactic to get a transfer to postgraduate department,” he said — BRABU registrar R K Thakur lauded the move.

“What Lalan Kumar did is quite unusual and merits our immediate attention. We are discussing the matter with the vice-chancellor and would soon ask Nitisheshwar College principal to explain absenteeism,” Thakur told The Indian Express.

Lalan Kumar, who completed his Masters in Hindi from Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and PhD and MPhil from Delhi University, had also applied for transfer to the PG department in order to be “academically involved”.

Ever since he joined — this was his first job — Kumar said he never saw any environment of education in the college. “I heard my inner voice and decided to return my salary for two years and nine months to the university,” he added.

Nitisheshwar College has nearly 3,000 students, of whom approximately 1,100 undergraduate students have to study Hindi. Kumar is the only regular Hindi teacher in the college, aside from a guest teacher for the subject.

In all, the institution has 31 regular and guest teachers.

Asked why students were absent even before the pandemic, college principal Manoj Kumar did not spell out any specific reason. “Academic activity has been disturbed in the college due to frequent examinations,” he said. “A few months after Lalan Kumar joined, the world saw several waves of Covid-19. We had online classes during that period.”

(Source: Bihar teacher listens to ‘conscience’, returns 33-month salary to college by Santosh Singh)

Point to ponder: In matters of conscience the law of majority has no place ~ Mahatma Gandhi (Young India). What does it mean to you?

Just FYI: 

Gandhi believed — The rule of majority does not mean that it should suppress the opinion of even an individual if it is sound. The opinion of an individual should have greater weight than the opinion of many, if that opinion is sound on merits. That is my view of real democracy. (Mahatma, Vol. VI)

(Source: http://www.mkgandhi.org)

Thought process:

Number doesn’t matter more than the ethical principles. Hence, decision making should not be based on what society supports but what your conscience based on conscience. Remember, many times society takes a decision based on the requirement and demand of the majority. Is that always the right path? Is it always ethical?

A similar quote which aspirants should know : “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr., (A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches)

(The writer is the author of ‘Being Good and Aaiye, Insaan Banaen’. He teaches courses on and offers training in ethics, values and behaviour. He has been the expert/consultant to UPSC, SAARC countries, Civil services Academy, National Centre for Good Governance, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Competition Commission of India (CCI), etc. He has PhD in two disciplines and has been a Doctoral Fellow in Gandhian Studies from ICSSR. His second PhD is from IIT Delhi on Ethical Decision Making among Indian Bureaucrats. He writes for the UPSC Ethics Simplified (Concepts and Caselets) fortnightly.)

— Edited by Manas Srivastava

Do not miss The Caselet on Voice of Conscience by Nanditesh Nilay in UPSC Ethics Simplified on May 11.

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