People look up to people in positions of responsibility as ideological icons and role models. They scrutinise their every action. As a result, people in positions of responsibility lose the freedom to live life as free individuals. They are forced to wear masks. It usually is a question of time before the mask slips. In simple terms, people in positions of responsibility – don’t dance or drink.
Should this be the case? Many would say yes.
People are in positions of responsibility everywhere; in politics, organisations, sports, courts, art, science, armed forces and even family setup. Some of these positions have strict guidelines on how the person must behave and the stakeholders’ expectations. Some have unwritten rules, norms, and past precedents to guide behaviour. And mostly, they are contextual and comparative. The expectation-experience gap irritates the stakeholders and frustrates the person in the position.
THERE IS ALWAYS AN ALTERNATIVE.
So, the alternative is to fight for the right to live the way one wants or give in to the constraints. This leads to polarised views. Most people in the position of responsibility will fight for their privacy and right to live a modular life. And other people will want people in positions of responsibility to live life in a continuum of model behaviour. It is, after all, easy to have higher expectations from others, and some will always consider it on case to case basis.
THE YOUNGEST PM SHOWS THE RIGHT TO INDIVIDUAL LIFE
Sanna Marin (36 years), the Prime Minister of Finland and the youngest PM in the world was called irresponsible after a video of her partying and dancing with friends was leaked on social media.
The youngest PM rightly defended herself. She said, “I have a family life, a work life and also my free time, and I spend time with my friends”, stating she has done nothing irresponsible or illegal. She took a drug test to kill the possible rumours, to legally protect herself and clear doubts about her taking drugs at the party. #SolidarityWithSanna trended with Finnish women sharing their partying videos.
Many raise a question, would she have been at her logical, responsible best if there was some emergency where she may have been asked to take decisions? Now, that is not too much to ask or expect. But do we all who raise these questions live with the same standards?
Sanna Marin also said that she had nothing “to conceal or hide” and was determined to continue to be “the same person as I have been until now … I have free time that I spend with my friends. I’m pretty sure that’s the same as many people my age”.
It is okay till it is within the bounds of privacy and not shared. Once it is in a public space, it is open to different interpretations, and other expectations define the experience. Her only irresponsible act was her belief that the video taken would remain private.
She has taken the other alternative and said that let the elections (whenever they happen) decide if she is right or wrong.
This situation differed in an earlier episode when she partied after meeting a person diagnosed with Covid. But, she then apologised. She is perfectly right in defining the boundaries and her right to freedom to live like an individual.
And it takes a lot of explaining from her.
BORIS CASE
Boris Johnson attending a birthday party was a different case. It was a period of Covid-imposed restrictions. And the behaviour, by any stretch of the imagination, is irresponsible. It is a case of behaving wrongly.
On the other side, Boris apologised to Queen Elizabeth after it became known that his staff partied in Downing Street on the eve of the queen’s husband, Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021. It is a case of irresponsible official behaviour that somewhat overlaps with individual life. So, things are contextual.
CORPORATE LIFE.
What is true for politicians is true for corporate leaders. The case of Ashneer Grover and the leaked phone call in which he allegedly threatened and abused Kotak Bank’s employee over Nykaa’s IPO. It was not expected from him, and the behaviour was improper for the position of responsibility as the founder of BharatPe.
Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s arrest for rash driving is also such a case. Accidents happen, but people make up their minds quickly. Earlier his abusive speech at PayTm annual conference was shared and trolled for irresponsible improper behaviour and not meeting the expectations.
WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE?
It raises the question, when does work, family and personal life start and end? Many would say that such jobs are 24X7, and their personal-professional lives overlap. Does that mean that a Judge, PM, Ministers, Chief of staff, Bureaucrats and people in the position of responsibility should never dance, party or drink? Sounds like too much of a punishment.
NEARER HOME
The concept of responsible behaviour in the position of responsibility does not seem to operate. And this holds for personal and professional life. If the past is the trendsetter or example the country has, expecting anything different is living in an illusion.
Unfortunately, when it is about politicians, in a democracy, the voters should carry the blame for repeatedly electing people known for behaving irresponsibly.
NET-NET
I believe that the person in the position of responsibility has the right to have a personal life. It should not matter what the person does outside their work life unless they do something unethical and illegal.
However, society expects different rules to apply to people in the position of responsibility. Their lives are under scrutiny in the new world of easy information access and availability. They are role models, and the positions come with expectations. Some of them may be tough for many to follow. But that is the price they must pay.
Or, they can, like Sanna Marin, take such expectations head-on.
I hope Sanna Marin pushes people to re-evaluate their expectations. Expecting people not to live life in a constrained, caged environment could force them to live a double life. Wear a mask, and masks do slip at times.
And as citizen stakeholders, we should not make a mountain out of a molehill, and we must not take such a slight digression into a debate; maybe that will be best for all of us.
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