There has recently been a spate of errors committed in the affairs of the nation. The three most notable cases are the CVC case, 2G case and Hasan Ali case. The cost to the nation is enormous both in terms of the loss in quality and quantity of nation’s resources. Since all this occurred in public administration, the buck stops at the PM, Manmohan Singh and he has accepted the responsibility in the first case and with a little pressure would no doubt do the same in the two other cases.

However, he is known to be a man of integrity and the nation feels gratified that he acknowledges the ‘error of judgment’ on his part and assumes it to be an error of omission without any further thought of motive and accountability.

The error of judgment in case bribery of parliamentarians discovered through the error of judgment made by Congressmen in confiding to American diplomats however got camouflaged in the confusion of similar errors of judgment made by BJP leaders. All these are assumed to be errors of omission and being forgotten.

But what happens in the error of judgment made by M S Dhoni in the India – SA, cricket match with cost only to the prestige of Indian cricket. His explanation that he chose Ashish Nehra over Harbajan Singh because of the former's better recent performance had not cut ice with eminent fans, critics and experts led by Boria Majumdar. The nation took this as an error of commission, held him accountable and was baying for his blood till Aussies, Pakistanis and Srilankans were vanquished and matter forgotten.

The farce continued with tax exemption allowed to ICC. This error of judgment by the cabinet of GoI, forced by the NCP strongman (who made another error in participating in the cabinet meeting) was overshadowed by another error made by the ICC, chairman in the since-rercanted decision to ban electronic media from the cricket World Cup Final. A little late but the realisation dawned that commercial interest cannot be overlooked even by media and compromise reached.

But now, comes the mother-error of judgment. Civil Society and Anna Hazare were spurned initially in their efforts at eradicating corruption. Dramatic developments like withdrawal of Sharad Power from GoM responsible for implementing (or sabotaging) Lokpal Bill and initiation of talks between Kapil Sibal and civil society, however, gave us hope this time that chicken will come home to roost finally and there will be no error of judgment by civil society in making the corrupt and culprit bow to the nation and repent.

We pray and wait with bated breath.