Those in power in Maharashtra have plenty to learn from John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, popularly known as Lord Acton. Lord Acton is known as one of the greatest historians of the Victorian period in Great Britain. He was also a writer and, as a politician, was also elected to the British parliament.

A strong advocate of individual liberty, he wrote to Bishop Creighton that the same moral standards should be applied to all men, political and religious leaders included, especially since “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

This is true even today, and it is so in India too, with Maharashtra being no exception. To be corrupt, it is not necessary to accept material benefits; not doing one’s job properly or being dishonest or immoral while executing the tasks entrusted to an individual by virtue of his/her position is also corruption. As such, there are very few individuals in politics and in public service who can be said to be non-corrupt.

In India, power does not tend to merely corrupt those enjoying it, it also makes them think that they are the know-all; in effect, they tend to become idiots. So, the more the power, the more the tendency to become a bigger idiot.

It is seen that when individuals gain power, they believe that they are experts in every intellectual activity in which human beings indulge. Power makes a person speak on mathematics and show how mathematicians have failed to understand that in the quadratic equation of (a b)2, an extra 2ab is obtained, or how the air........

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