LONDON: How bad was your week? Well, fear not. Rajesh Vishwas is here to make you feel better.
The Indian government official was recently suspended after he ordered a reservoir to be drained so he could retrieve his mobile phone, which had fallen in when he tried to take a selfie while picnicking with friends.
Taking the old “but I need it for work” excuse to whole new levels, Vishwas, a food inspector, claimed his Samsung mobile held sensitive government data and therefore had to be found.
It took three days to pump 2 million litres of water out of the reservoir, enough to irrigate over 400 hectares of farmland in a country suffering from water scarcity. The phone was found but was, unsurprisingly, waterlogged and unusable.
Leaving aside the question of whether he tried the old “put it in a bag of rice” trick, the entire scenario is undoubtedly farcical. But there are also easy lessons from this victory in the abuse of power stakes that should apply to anyone in a position of authority facing a management decision.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS OF A LEADER
Lapses in judgment and a sheer lack of integrity fly in the face of the most basic expectations of what it means to be a leader.
There is a fundamental requirement to not be selfish, to think of others and to try your very best to do no harm – for example, by depriving a scorching country of a much-needed resource or by throwing a party in the heart of government when your nation is under pandemic lockdown rules. Employees, clients and the public tend to demand it.