149. The Short-listed Candidate

"I have shortlisted three candidates for the post of the General Manager. You may select one of them for appointment" Mukundan, the CEO of the company told Sankararaman, the Chairman.

"If we are appointing a candidate from outside our company, I may be interested in looking at the background of the candidates. These three are the senior executives of our company. As the CEO, you would have interacted with them closely. You are the best person to evaluate them and choose the one you consider the best. Why do you want me to look at their profiles?" asked Sankararaman.

"I think that since we are choosing a person who is going to occupy a position immediately below me, I thought it would be appropriate if the appointment was made by someone above me."

"I appreciate your ethical standards. Please show me the profile of the three people shortlisted by you. Can I take it that the name on the top of the list is your first preference?"

"In a way, yes. But, I would consider all the three candidates to be equally good."

"Okay. Let us start with the first name - Giridharan."

After spending a couple of minutes going through the profile, Sankararaman said, "His profile is quite impressive. But you have attached a bunch of papers to the profile. What are these?"

"The Human Resources (HR) department has prepared a profile sheet, incorporating all the important information about each candidate. That is what you went through. The attachments are supporting papers, kept by the HR department, for reference, in case of necessity. I should have removed them, while giving you the file. I am sorry" said Mukundan. 

"That is ok" said Sankararaman and quickly browsed through the papers. He stopped at a page and asked. "What is this? There is a reference to some FIR!"

"That is a something relating to a happening in a company Giridharan worked earlier."

"What was the issue? Can you elaborate?"

"It seems there was an affair between him and a female employee. But, it is said that it had happened only with the consent of the woman."

"Was it something like a consensual rape?" asked Sankararaman, with a smile.

"Sir! It was not rape. Giridharan and the woman had been having a relationship for quite some time. Every one in the company had known about it. But, allof a sudden, one day, that woman gave a police complaint that Giridhran sexually assaulted her."

"Interesting! Then?"

"It transpired that the woman's husband had forced her to give such a complaint, intending to use it to extract money from Giridharan." 

"That means that the affair had been going on only with the consent of the woman's husband. This is real consensual sex!"

"The woman's husband had planned to use the police complaint to blackmail Giridharan and withdraw the complaint after extracting some money from him. But, the police registered an FIR immediately. So he was forced to hurriedly reach a compromise and withdraw the complaint. Since Giridhran's name was in the FIR, that fact was recorded by his company in his personal file."

"But, how did you come to know of these details?"

"When Giridharan was selected by our company for the job, I saw these details in the confidential report sent by his previous company at our request. I spoke to the HR Manager of the company to ascertain the details. He was the one who gave me the details. He also said Giridharan was very good at his job and that it was an isolated incident resulting from an indiscretion on the part of Giridharan." 

"You had been very thorough. But you made a mistake in appointing him in our company, even after knowing about this incident."

"Why do you say so, sir?"

"A man who had an affair with another man's wife doesn't deserve anything good in life. If I had known about these facts, I would have stalled his appointment even at that time. Now, of course, we can't dismiss him. But, we can stop him from becoming the General Manager."

"Sir! That incident happened many years back. After Giridharan had joined our company, there was no complaint against him. He is a person with an excellent performance record and proven competence. I would say that he is the best among the three short-listed candidates."

"Then, let us go for the second best. I am sorry, Mr. Mukundan! As I had said earlier, I don't consider a person having a liaison with another man's wife a human being at all. He does not deserve to be considered for a high position. Please strike off his name from the list. Let us select one of the other two" said Sankararaman, firmly.

Thirukkural

Section 1
The Path of Virtue

Chapter 14
Possession of Propriety 

Verse 149 (In Tamil)

nalakkuriyAr yAr enin nAma nIr vaippin
piRarkku uriyAL thOL thOyAdhAr.

Meaning:

Those who don't touch the shoulder of a another man's wife are the ones who deserve all the good in this world surrounded by the fearsome ocean.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'mUvaril oruvar' by the same author)

Verse 150 (Soon)
Verse 148