The meaning of an oath

After witnessing the oaths taken by the new leaders, one thing that struck me is that when we believe that all politicians are master liars why should we take these ceremonies seriously? Yes, I know that getting along in civil society is based on the expectation that people will do what they promise to do.

It surely is amazing that right from our childhood we go through a moral development process of standing by our word, thanks to our teachers, parents, religion etc but none of them keeps a check on our ability to keep a promise. Manmohan Singh and several other Prime Ministers would have taken the same oath but we don’t even keep a check on whether or not they kept their promises. That’s because we know that the so-called oath is perhaps just a gesture and something that should not be taken seriously.

What does it take to developmentally, cognitively, and emotionally make a promise in the first place? And what compels one to keep a promise, when there seems to be no personal advantage in doing so, and even when there can be negative effects? How do we know whether it’s a promise meant to be taken seriously, or something that’s only a polite gesture and doesn’t hold much water?

Each of us know many people including politicians who regularly break promises that were unnecessary in the first place to make. We also know those who were regarded as “promising” but who did not fulfil their “promise”.

And then there are those who feared making a promise, a commitment that, once made, the utterance would take on a life of its own and should never be taken back.

The famous Hippocratic oath taken by doctors has no meaning in today’s corporate hospitals designed to make money. I don’t mean to be negative; I’m just stating it as a fact. The bottom line is that none of us believe that a doctor treats us just for the love of humanity, bound by the Hippocratic oath nor do we believe that the people in courts taking an oath, in the name of the Bhagwad Gita don’t lie and we definitely don’t believe the oaths taken by political leaders where they talk of serving the country.

So I think it’s all a futile exercise, which we force ourselves to indulge in for the sake of outdated traditions. Realistically speaking, instead of making them utter mindless oaths they should be made to sign legal agreements of their commitments to make them accountable. That way they will think a hundred times before making any kind of promise in the first place.