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!!
