Posted by: Sukanya Patwardhan | May 18, 2013

Whistleblowing as a Money Making Business in Future?

I was reading a news on “Dinesh Thakur: Meet the man who won Rs 244 cr for blowing the whistle against Ranbaxy”.

The gist is “US Food and Drug Administration” inspectors first noted allegations about Ranbaxy’s faulty manufacturing practices as early as 2006, which was soon followed by a whistleblower’s lawsuit in 2007 alleging that the company defrauded US federal medical programmes by misrepresenting information on manufacturing procedures”

I do appreciate Dinesh Thakur’s action and I am not surprised at his courage of conviction as it has its roots in his own son  not responding to a generic Ranbaxy antibiotic but recovered quickly with a brand name equivalent. When you personally suffer, courage, guts and hard work become your guardian angels and friends. Nothing else but justice matters then.

It is good that eventually these investigations will lead to adhering to correct procedures, and will also alert other companies to think twice before they continue with their wrong practices (if they do). Ultimately there will be international laws on whistleblowing and rewarding them, I foresee.

Yes, the whistleblowers should be rewarded,even monetorily.

I am wondering if the whistleblowing will be done because it is a right thing to do or it has a monetory reward?
I am surpised at the news heading – what do we want our readers to take away? Dinesh got sumptuous amount or he is responsible for preventing spoiling and thereby saving millions of lives? Why did Dinesh do it? Was it for money? Was he keen that the malpractices should be stopped? Would he use this money for a good cause or be happy about it as if it is his big personal bonus amount?
I think we need to respect the intent of the whistleblower law and the thought behind it.
Ultimately each one of us desires our planet to be happy, peaceful and a place worth living in ! Isn’t that a biggest reward?
I hope whistle blowing doesn’t become yet another money making business..
There is a saying in Sanskrit which means “Money has an intrinsic quality – to spoil the minds, use it carefully”


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