Sycophancy Virus

I often wonder why is there so much sycophancy in this country! Chief minister of a northern state expects every visitor to take-off their shoes before they enter the CMO and people are happy to comply! Even the IAS officers are not spared (not that others should have any less self-respect). Politicians, film stars are worshipped as deities, their temples or statues are constructed (many times by themselves) and people are rolling in reverence! Then there are political parties where dynastical successor is worshipped and seen as the only bail-out for the party’s future. There are corporate houses in this country where the employees have to bow in displayed respect and use special salutations when the Chairman passes-by (without of course looking eye to eye with the supremo).


But why go too far? All this starts many a times from one’s own family. In most families kids are not expected to question parents, teachers (even if they are wrong).; wives are expected to treat their husbands like ‘pati parameshwar’ meaning ‘ my husband is my god’, although the husband may often be struggling to make it to the list of being a decent human being; or our society where no one can question the self-styled custodians of religion.

Most of us are sycophants and minority of those who refuse to be ‘one’ are also forced sometime or the other to become a sycophant. Sycophancy is sign of incompetence, a high politically-charged atmosphere and a society based on short-term transactions. Such sycophancy gives rise to illegitimate power in families, societies and organizations and destroys first the engagement of the stakeholders and then the organization itself. Sycophancy is a self-destructing virus that destroys the holder as well as the beholder.