A year back - Manjunath Shanmugam, an IIM Lucknow graduate and a Indian Oil employee, was murdered by a dealer of an Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) for not accepting bribes and turning a blind eye to the adulteration of fuel being carried out by the dealer. The entire nation was shaken because of that and I specially feel strongly about the entire incident because
1) My brother-in-law is also an officer in the same company and it was discussed a lot more in my family.
2) I am specially touchy about any murder as a result of the societal corruption / terrorism - for the fact that it has directly affected me in the recent past.
But this post is not about my feelings about the incident but I wanted to spread the word on the activities taken by the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust. I got a note from H.Jaishankar today informing me about a couple of nation-wide initiatives in Manjunath’s memory to bring better transparency and improve governance in the Indian corporate and public life.
Copied below are the details. Please spread the word and participate, if you can.
On November 19, 2006 Manjunath’s first death anniversary the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust has undertaken following initiatives.
1) Launch of a national helpline that will help people across the country in using the Right To Information Act. (9250-400-100)
2) Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award.
The objective of Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award is to honour and encourage person/s or institutions who are working to uphold the values of truth and honesty in the Indian public life. We are looking at deserving candidates who have reported and actively rectified/have worked to rectify corrupt practices in government, public or corporate life.
The nominees will be evaluated on the basis of
1. Gravity of the situation and its impact
2. Corrective action undertaken , not merely reporting the situation
3. Extent of difficulty faced by nominee in correcting the situation
The valid entries will be assessed by a panel of distinguished jurors, drawn from the corporate sector as well as public life.
Nominations will be accepted from 19th November, with details and form available on the MST’s website www.manjunathshanmugamtrust.org. The award carries a citation and a cash prize of Rs. One Lakh.
You can help us by nominating a deserving person. If you wish to nominate someone, please download the nomination form and send it to us at the address mentioned. You can also spread the word around through your emails/blogs.
We wish to make this annual award a success, and encourage more people/institutions to work to improve Indian public life.
Technorati Tags: manjunath, corruption, indian oil
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November 24, 2006 at 5:19 am
Ashish, this post has again questioned my belief that India is changing for better!! I have been living outside of India for quite a while and I somehow had missed Manjunath incident though I had heard about Satyendra Dubey.
I salute Manjunath’s courage, praying God that let his soul create more such courageous souls to shape the destiny of India.
I will spread the word about http://www.manjunathshanmugamtrust.org and their initiatives.
Jai Hind,
Santosh
November 25, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Santosh - indeed a sad state of affairs there. The saddest part is that whatever we do, whatever progress we make - things like these just brings back things back to square one.
November 28, 2006 at 4:57 pm
This murder and the entire episode was indeed quite shocking.
The question that I am often confronted with is that we might leave our native places, small-towns and come to metropolitan cities, work in air-conditioned offices, lead a different lifestyle.. but are we safe from corruption even in these places??
As per your post, even I have written on my blog to spread the word on the activities taken by the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust
November 29, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Thanks for the visibility on your blog, ashish. 19th was the death anniversary of manjunath and the trial is still going on. I believe that the best service that anyone could do in his/her own personal capacity would be to use Right-To-Information act to fight corruption. It’s a powerful tool and has the potential to change our future.
I plan to talk about the trust’s activities and the recent RTI helpline launch at the Delhi BarCamp. Hope my academic schedule allows that.
cheers