The case of Puja Khedkar (if she is proven guilty), the IAS officer of the batch of 2023 who is in the news for the wrong reasons, has exposed the corrupt practices engaged by some aspirants who ‘allegedly’ seek to serve the interest of the public in their capacity as a public servant. The case has not only brought disrepute to a highly reputed service sector of the nation but has also exposed how corruption, deception, and recourse to falsehoods are being used with impunity to achieve self-interest at the cost of the interests of society.
Public service is undoubtedly the noblest service that one can render to the people of a country. It is because public services in the form of administrative services in government, the judiciary, the teaching fraternity, the medical fraternity, to name a few, are available to the ordinary citizen that a society thrives.
Public servants are the backbone of any civil society that aims at the well-being of its people and they have always been treated with great respect for the services they render. As such, civil servants, teachers, doctors and lawyers are all required to maintain ‘virtue’ in public life that includes the highest levels of honesty, accountability, responsibility and commitment. This is as important to their professional life as is their professional acumen.