The news is: After much reluctance, veteran Congress politician Mr. ND Tiwari will now have to undergo the DNA Test -- As the Supreme Court of India has ordered him to do so.

With this, the long battle fought by Rohit Shekhar, a young man who believes he is the biological son of Ex Uttarakhand CM; comes to an end.

By the look of the matter, it appears that Mr. Shekhar will win the paternity case against Mr. Tiwari. And once and for all he will be able to call Mr. Tiwari his father.

You all know the finer details of the case; hence we will not delve into them.

Instead we will raise other important questions -- The questions of Honesty and how we want our public representatives to Act and Behave.

Take Mr. Tiwari’s case for instance: The very fact that he was unwilling to give his blood sample for DNA testing purposes indicates that he had something to hide.

But more than the attempt to hide something; what makes this important is the ‘Why’ -- ‘Why did he want to hide something?’. For the public, guessing the ‘why’ was not that difficult.

After all, most people guessed it the very first day; the issue was taken to court. But still, Mr. Tiwari kept dragging the issue, until he was reprimanded by the Apex Court.

The question arises: Why did Mr. Tiwari display a reluctance to see what the public was seeing from the very first day? The answer to this question is simple; but it reflects on how “We” as a society and as citizens of India, have started looking or look at such issues.

 Have we, as citizens and as society, stopped giving due weightage to Personal Honesty? OR if said in other words -- Are we undervaluing the importance of Honesty? To an extent that, if a public figure shows honesty for an anomaly in his private life; he/she faces ostracism?

Just ask yourself: What Power and Money brings to people? You know the Answer. The Answer is FAME, RESPECT & ATTRACTIVENESS TO THE OPPOSITE GENDER. They also bring one other thing: RSOURSEFULNESS (a trait where a person easily arranges the resources required to achieve his/her immediate goal).

When Power and Money brings the heady mix of the above things: people do Act and behave in a manner, which may not be seen in a good light in the public.

Mr. ND Tiwari wished (or not wished) to hide something; as he was convinced that the acceptance of a certain truth will affect his Public Image and as a consequence his political Career. In short, since he was convinced that people would not be giving due weightage to his honesty in this issue; and will summarize his political career and Life accomplishments from this personal anomaly /divergence (if there is any); hence he chose ‘reluctance the way forward' and left Personal Honesty in the closet.

More than Mr. Tiwari (who has to deal with the moral questions); it’s us, the society, who has to ask ourselves questions. So here are the questions:

 Have we, as citizens and the society, stopped giving due weightage to Personal Honesty? OR if said in other words -- Are we undervaluing the importance of Honesty? To an extent that, if a public figure shows honesty for an anomaly in his private life; he/she risks ostracism for the rest of his/her life?

Are we, as citizens and as a society, focusing too much on the personal lives of our public figures, acheivers, intellectuals, scientists and Rich, to the extent that we are summarizing their entire careers on wrong benchmarks?

Don’t we, as citizens and as a society, make a certain habit of seeing our public figures from their work which directly affects us?

Have we, as society and as Citizens, assimilated the notion that: Only a Dumb public figure finds himself caught in such controversies. Smart people always have divergences in their personal lives; but they ensure that they are not caught?

 Remember a politician or an officer could be a womanizer in private; but can be a great professional, with utmost honesty and integrity, while dispensing his duties to the public. But beware; the vice-versa can be equally true. We as a society and as citizens, have to see, which among the two scenarios is better for us.
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