M.K. George

• During his recent visit to the U.S. the Prime Minister of India declared, “We are a democracy. India and America both have democracy in their DNA. Democracy is in our spirit, we live it, and it’s written in our Constitution…So no question of discrimination on the grounds of caste, creed, or religion arises. That is why, India believes in sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas, sabka prayaas and walks ahead with it.”

Collin Gonsalves, one of the leading advocates in India remarked in an interview with the Newsclick (5 July 2023), ‘India is certainly not democratic at all. It is just talk. It is just showmanship. It is just rhetoric… Institutions of democracy, I believe, they are dying rapidly…We have nowhere to turn to…there is no future for this country’.
No surprise then, that reporting on the statement of the Prime Minister of India, Habib Siddiqui wrote in Counter Currents (6 July 2023), “Modi lied once again. It has become obvious that the DNA of lying and deception, and not democracy, is in his veins.”

Religions teach on lying
In the Bible, one of the Ten Commandments is, ‘thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’
Budha said, “In the same way, Rahula… when anyone feels no shame in telling a deliberate lie, there is no evil, I tell you, they will not do. Thus, Rahula, you should train yourself, I will not tell a deliberate lie, even in jest.”
In the Hindu view, ‘Vyasa wrote Mahabharata in the beginning of Kaliyuga; he knew that lies can’t be avoided completely. But the end justifies the means. So if anything leads to a good end or a beneficial effect, then lying is justified.’ However, the Vedas teach, ‘Satyam vada – speak the truth’. In the Indian tradition, the principle remains, Satyameva Jayade – Truth wins.
Look at from any angle, lying is not the mode of being human or divine.

Post Truth Society and telling lies
Speaking of lying, Yuri Gripas wrote (2020) “Lies are part of the DNA of modern society, though we often now refer to them with the more dignified terminology of marketing, advertising, propaganda or spin. From unscrupulous sellers of used cars to prime ministers making unsubstantiated declarations about weapons of mass destruction, it seems that many people now make a living from lies.”
Continuing his reflections on post-truth and lying he observes, “post-truth is a murky concept, but it should not be confused with a lie. Post-truth is much more devious and dangerous to the democratic fabric of our society. The prefix “post” in post-truth refers to the claim that a specified idea has become redundant and therefore can safely be discarded. Post-truth is the belief that truth is no longer essential, that truth has become obsolete.”

Religious leaders no exception
Unfortunately for us, religious leaders are no exception. Contemporary society has thrown up innumerable lies spread by religious leaders to the extent that many are leaving religious practices and membership in religion. Whether it is to protect their personal interests, or to attract larger number of followers, religious and even so called ‘spiritual’ leaders seem to have no qualms about saying lies and duping people.
Cases like that of Jim Jones of ‘Peoples Temple Cult’ who led to a mass suicide in 1978 remain blot on religious history.
However, there are some sane voices. Pope Francis, for instance, in one of his exhortations (2018) warned against telling lies. He said, “We all live by communicating, and we are continuously on the edge between truth and lies.”

Get back to moral science classes?
May be we should get back to the moral science and catechism classes, believe in, and practise the simple axiom, ‘do not lie’.
Fully realizing that it is not as simple as that, one has to re-affirm that a re-commitment to truth and searching for truth will only be the way to save the world. Confronted with lies of all types, polished, crude, religious, political, etc., an ordinary citizen has to find her sanity. We need to believe in truth and live the truth.
The warning of Gripas cannot be ignored: “We can cope with politicians lying, but we cannot afford the risk of allowing politicians to delegitimise truth.”