A high level enquiry into the allegations against Masilamani, who had been suspended from his position of the General Manager of the company, was conducted and the report submitted to the Managing Director Raghavan.
Raghavan had to send his recommendation to the Chairman of the company, on the action to be taken on Masilamani
A few senior executives of the company were discussing the matter among themselves.
"Intoxicated by power, Masilamani acted arrogantly and did things to hurt people who worked under him! Now he is in the dock. I think that he should be sent to jail" said Mukundan.
"He didn't commit any wrong. The charge against him is that he failed to see the fraud committed, right under his nose, by some people working under him. It was sheer negligence" said Dorai.
"If he he were to detect the negligence of someone working under him, what would he say? 'How do I know whether it was negligence or a deliberate act? If you commit a wrong, you have to face the punishment, whether your wrongdoing was intentional or unintentional' and punish that person. A lot of people including you and I have been victims of his merciless behaviour. Even for a trivial thing like a typo in a letter, he would make hell and humiliate the person in front of others, as if that person had committed a grave irregularity!"
"What you say is true. He has punished people, who committed small mistakes, with unjust punishments like transferring them to another department and in some cases, with disproportionately severe punishments like recording adverse comments in their personal files leading to the denial of increments and promotions to them. If he perceived the mistake to be severe, he would punish the person mercilessly by transferring him to a far off place, suspending him, demoting him etc. Let us see what punishment is going to be awarded to him!"
"Mr. Raghavan. A fraud has been committed. But you have recommended that Masilamani be reinstated as the General Manager!" asked Kanakalingam, the Chairman of the company.
"The only charge against Masilamani is negligence. The fraud was discovered during the internal audit. We have identified the culprits, dismissed them, handed them over to the police and with the help of the police, even recovered the money misappropriated by them. Masilamani did not knowingly commit any wrongdoing. He is going to retire in two years. We may reinstate him in his old position, but curtail his powers. We may appoint another General Manager and entrust him with all the powers. Putting him back in his position, with all his powers stripped off, will make Masilamani a dummy. This will be an adequate punishment for him" said Ragavan.
"Masilamani showed no compassion to others, He awarded disproportionately severe punishment even for small mistakes. in many cases, you have intervened and reduced or annulled the punishment given by him. So, why are you showing mercy to such a person?"
"Sir! In dealing with Masilamani, I have adopted the same approach, as I had, with people affected by Masilamani's merciless approach. If a person has not committed a wrong intentionally, he should be shown mercy. This is my approach. If I can't show mercy to Masilamani, just because he has not shown mercy to others, it will mean that Masilamani determines what approach I should adopt! How can I allow it?" said Raghavan.
Thirukkural
Section 2
Materialism
Chapter 58
Compassion
Verse 579 (in Tamil):
oRuththu ARRUm paNbinAr kaNNUm kaNNOdip
poRuththu ARRum paNbE thalai.
Meaning:
Being compassionate and tolerant even towards a person, who follows the practice of punishing people without showing them any mercy, is most admirable
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