Gratitude in public

Public servants (elected representatives and officials), through out their careers, are presented with the opportunity of dispensing good to the community or the individuals.  The Government compensates them for doing the job presented to them in terms of a fair salary.  However, we come across a number of public servants deciding and extracting their own compensation from the recipients of the public good.  A question which comes to mind is, in case people come across a public servant who does his job without expecting anything in return, do they really hold any gratitude in their hearts for the service rendered by the public servant.  In case they do, does that gratitude really motivate a public servant to work for the sake of gratitude in place of illegal gratification.

That the public hold gratitude is amply demonstrated through a number of elections in independent india, where the kith and kin of a deceased public representative is elected out of sympathy.  Hence, values like sympathy, gratitude etc. are part of public virtue and can be taken for granted. But, the question is, how does one gain the gratitude of people? In public life, there is no short-cut to the lengthy process of entry into the world of the voting-majority; a world moving in its own direction at its own pace.  This process of syncing with this world has four steps, entry phase, engagement phase, transformation phase, and action phase.

Unknown to many, a world of the voting and suffering majority exists around us.  A person with the noble intention of dispensing good to the majority surrounding us and become a leader, has to first initiate the process of entry into the majority world through a declaration of his intention to all concerned.  We often find a person who intends to run for election, visiting marriages, birth/ death ceremonies.  Some enterprising people throw big parties in villages, contribute to the village festivals, public infrastructure facilities with a view to gaining some initial good will among the people.  Once the process of entry and establishing an identity is complete, he moves on to the next phase of aggressively engaging with the day-to-day lives of the public.  Any accident, flood, calamity in this world will immediately see the person landing up at the place and offering condolences and promises for help to the victims.  Taking part in the happy and sad moments of those in that world becomes a daily routine for him.  This phase takes the leader to all the places where problems exist in this world.  The most essential part in confidence building among the people is a physical visit to the problem location.  Even the most insensitive human being is bound to react once he is presented with a scene of human suffering before his eyes; such is the nature of humans.  No one knows this better than the common man.  Therefore, a public servant is often compelled by public to visit the problem area.  After getting into the world, instead of playing a passive role, an active engagement with the life in that world will make him more knowledgeable about the concerns there.  After some time a stage is reached where the leader is totally in sync with the world around him, fully aware of all the difficulties and life on a day to day basis.  He is totally transformed into a successful and active member of the world.  Next comes the action phase where he needs to find solutions for the concerns there.  Through an aggressive process of agitation and confrontation with the  Government, good is extracted and distributed to the needy by the leader.  Once the leader is being seen as someone who is identifying with them, fighting for their causes, and delivering what they aspire for, the bond and trust between the leader and the public becomes strong.  Feeling of gratitude, affection, awe etc. get generated from this continuing process of dispensation of good to the people.

The question of motivation of public servants from this gratitude alone is however not certain.