Draupati Vastraharan and Corporate Characters

Let me describe the specific scene in Mahabharat first…

Dharma has a temptation to play the Game of Dice and on invitation from Dhuriyodan, he sets out to play. He loses all his material possessions, then he pledges his brothers, then himself and then finally pledges his wife Draupati. He loses her too due the wickedness of Sakuni. At this point, I do not want to discuss if Dharm had rights to pledge his brothers and his wife--I will keep it for a future discussion!!

Now that Draupati is won over, Dhuriyodan, orders his brother Ducchasan to bring her to the open court and strip her of her dresses. Ducchasan drags her by her hair and starts to strip her. She prays to Lord Krishna who promptly helps her by his magic act done REMOTELY (the saree that she wore keeps growing and growing). Finally, Ducchasan is fed up, tired and gives up.

The whole episode happens in the court led by Duriyodhan’s father, Dhirudhirashtra. The court also has Bhishma, Vithura, Karna, Dhuriyodan’s brothers, Kripacharya, Drona and many others.

No one raises an objection, except Vikarna, Dhuriyodan’s much younger brother. He objects very strongly and he is asked by Dhuriyidan to get out of the court. He leaves promptly, feeling angry and helpless!

Bhisma, Vithura, Kripacharya and Drona close their eyes and repent silently. After Ducchasan gives up, Draupati asserts herself and asks very valid questions, directly to the king, Dhirudhirashtra. Being moved by her emotions, the leader, Dhirudhirashtra grants her a lot of goodies. She is not keen to take any favours and asks for releasing her husbands and their weapons.

The above scene correlates to many corporate houses today. The leader is “Visionless” (like Dhirudhirastra!) and has his own biases (like Dhirudhirashtra’s bias for his son). He is unable to oppose whatever his son does!

In many corporate houses, we do find Visionless leaders with their own “blue-eyed boys”… There are many seniors who know what is right and what is wrong, but they choose to keep quiet and watch the happenings mutely. Some may choose to “keep away” and justify to themselves that they are not party to the injustice, since they were away!! They regret and repent, within themselves, without explicit objections, at the right time.

Some juniors in the ranks demonstrate courage and state brutal facts and they are promptly sidelined.

Some people, who are unconnected to the corporate decisions, get victimised (like Draupati). Many such victims seek “external” support. The people who can help (like Lord Krishna), choose to “stay away” and help—without getting into the court of madness.

Everyone gets into a mode of revenge; the root cause can never be identified. Like, Karna behaved badly, because Draupati rejected him albeit he as the first one to lift the bow during her Swamvara. Dhuriyodhan was insulted by Draupati in the Magic Palace; She calls him a “Blind Man’s Son” when he fell down in the Magic Palace. Both Duriyodhan and Karna takes their revenge in the court. Bhima vows to kill Ducchasan in a very barbaric manner. Arjun vows to kill Karna. Nakul vows to kill Sakuni.

The funny thing is that NO ONE vows to punish the silent seniors, who had the formal role, freedom and responsibility to stop the madness, but stayed action-less!! They went scot free!!!

This happens in many corporate houses, wherein there are many seniors who are competent enough to undo a wrong decision or bring in a new policy, but choose to keep quiet (due to their own insecurities), harming the entire company and specifically the unconnected victims!!

The Visionless Leader is also, many times, spineless in taking tough decisions; he also chooses not to consult the experienced ones, BEFORE action. There are many Sakunis who play a lot of political games and influence the key people for their own gains/personal agendas. Many senior leaders get influenced by such political games.

Dhuriyodhan, who has limited formal authority, takes many decisions in the court; this is true in many corporate houses too… wherein the “blue-eyed-boys” take many decisions without authority, since the formal leader is Visionless and is biased. Some times, such people are wrongly referred to as being in “fast track”!!

Gandhari, wife of Dhirudhirashtra, comes to the court and fights for Draupati, She doesn’t have any formal powers. She questions the Adharma and pleads for justice. People listen to her due to her astounding credibility and moral character. But, she makes very little impact, overall!

It is actually an interesting exercise to do a Root-cause Analysis for the Mahabharata war!! One may not know how far back one needs to go to identify the root cause!!

Before the stripping act, Dhuriyodhan sends a messenger to Draupati; she sends him back with questions and he goes up and down a few times just carrying messages from one to another!! There are many such senior managers in corporate houses, who just act as a relay station between the top management and people down the line. They take no real responsibility, but ends up gossiping in the coffee-room!!

Finally, not all victims take injustice lying down! Some ensure that the whole kingdom is brought down—like Draupati did!!