Part 2: How to Express

Expressing Agreement or endorsing a view

In my previous article Why eat raw fruit when there is a ripe sweet one at one’s disposal?, I explained how to agree and disagree using a story. It was well received and hence in a similar way, I endeavour to explain what are the other modes of expressing views- adopted from an old Tamizh literature (see endnotes for details)

The King made an announcement to his citizens about his endeavour to build a dam so that it would store excess water in the river during rainy season which will be used for irrigation during dry season and such storage would avoid calamities due to flood. He also made announcement that a Management Committee would be formed in this regard comprising of Prime Minister, Development Minister, Defence Minister and Finance Minister . The Prime Minister was appointed as head of the committee. The committee would discuss and recommend to the court the plan for constructing the dam.

The first activity of the committee was to organize an Executive Team who would execute the plan. The Prime Minister proposed the Head of the Village to be nominated as the Chief of Executive team. After few days, all the ministers concurred with the view so they went to the King to seek his approval in this regard.

The Prime minister said to the King, “Your Majesty, I humbly wish to nominate the Village Head as the leader of the executive committee.” The Defence Minister seconded the recommendation.

The Development Minister felt he missed the chance to support the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister was quick. He decided that he should be quick to react at the next opportunity.

The King listened to the nomination and asked the remaining committee “who are all in support of nominating the village head as the Chief of Executive Team?” The Finance Minister said, “Your Majesty, I have no objection for the appointment” and the Development Minister said “I agree to the recommendation, your Majesty.”

The King was happy that there is a consensus amongst all of them. But saying ‘no objection’ was not expressly agreeing. Curious about the consensus, he inquired the reason for supporting or having no objection.

The Development Minister want to be in good books of Prime Minister, so he immediately used this opportunity and said “Your Majesty, I consider the Prime Minister is most senior amongst us and he has proposed to have the Village Head as the head of Executive committee, so I agree and endorse his recommendation.” Saying so, the Minister had a big grin in his face and his eyes were glowing. He looked at the other ministers to gauge what their reactions were. In his mind, he was proud that he used the opportunity in the best way and he lauded himself for being quick in that. And he thought, now anybody who would have to support would indeed be copying his statement.

The Finance Minister said “Your Majesty, I humbly accept that I do not know the Village Head’s effectiveness. However I also do not have anyone else in my mind to recommend. I am neutral to this nomination therefore I did not say I agree or endorse but I said ‘I have no objection’. Also, as the Development Minister rightly said, the Prime Minister is senior person and I trust his recommendation will not go wrong.”

The Development Minister was happy as Finance Minister has to copy his statement and now his grin was much wider than before.

The Defence Minister said “Your Majesty, firstly I thank you for allowing me to make a representation before your esteemed self. The Prime Minister proposed to nominate the Village Head to be heading the Executive Committee during our meeting last week. After that, I asked my department to do an investigation and background verification about the Village Head. And as per the outcome of the analysis, the Village Head is from a respectable family. He has been helping the villagers for all their woes. Previously he had undertaken some projects for the village and have successfully completed them on time and within the allocated Budget. The workers under him have expressed happiness and are willing continually work under his able leadership. The Village Head is also a learned man and is specialized in building architecture. Indeed, he had designed the temple in his village. After seeing all these track records, I do not have any other recommendation. Hence I agreed to endorse the recommendation. I kindly submit my findings to you, Your Majesty and request to consider the recommendation.”

Hearing what the Defence Minister has said, the Development Minister planned a smart move. He immediately said to the King that “Your Majesty, on behalf of Defence Minister I apologize to Prime Minister for the audacity that Defence Minister has shown. It is indeed a disrespect to Prime Minister that the Defence Minister has made an independent research in spite of his recommendation. I request your Majesty to be considerate and forgive this rude behaviour.”

The Prime Minister then said “Your Majesty, the Defence Minister is correct in his findings. I am glad that he did his independent research. Before nominating, I also did a research and shortlisted two people to be suitable for the job. Both of them are Head of Villages from either side of the river. When approached, one of them cited his health condition and recommended the other to be nominated and assured that his village people will extend their cooperation. Therefore I decided to propose the nomination.”

The King lauded the work of Prime Minister and Defence Minister but was upset with Development Minister and Finance Minister .

The King then said to Development Minister that “ Yes indeed, the Prime Minister is senior most minister. But he is also human. Err is to human. So it is not necessary that whatever he says needs to be correct. There is nothing wrong in what the Defence Minister has done. Indeed what he has done is what is expected to be done.” The King further said, “Even our literature says we have to thoroughly interrogate and understand before adopting any religion or renouncing and dissuades blind acceptance. Being silent and blindly accepting is no different. If someone blindly endorse others view then it means they blindly welcome the consequences also. If it results in good outcome nobody is going to appreciate you. But if it eventually turns out adversely, you would be blamed for being accomplice to such adversity. There is no stupidity than to endorse other’s view blindly. You can blindly accept things or blindly endorse only if you are ready to face any adverse consequences resulting therefrom.”

The Finance Minister thought that at least he did not blindly agree but he had a reason that he had no better one in mind . He thought it was better to say he had no objection.

The King understood what is going on in Finance Minister’s mind and told “I know what is going on in your mind. You think you had a reason and that it is better you expressed no objection. Yes, indeed you did not blindly accept. But before expressing no objection you could have checked whether he had any relationship with Finance Ministry before. From what I understand, he had undertaken few projects before and therefore he should be having records with Finance Ministry for budgets and funding. You have failed to perform the verification. If you had said ‘no objection’ after verification, it would have been better. Since you have not done that, you have failed your duty as well. Your no objection in this regard is no better than blindly accepting.”

(Part 3- to be continued)

To quickly recollect- How to endorse views or express agreement:

• Never endorse or express agreement blindly because you are bound by your words
• Perform due diligence before expressing any view or opinion
• Reason out why you are agreeing to what you are agreeing at least this will prove that you are not grossly negligent
• By expressing no objection one cannot absolve their duty as they fail their duty by not disallowing any adverse outcome. One can express no-objection only when they have done their due diligence.

END NOTE: The approaches are adopted from 13th Century Tamizh literature -Nannul (நன்னூல்) written by Saint Bhavananti (பவநந்தி) Poem11. The poem eventually speaks about categories in expressing views on a Path / Religion.

About the book: The core objective of Nannul is to give a guidance on Tamizh Grammar, Guidelines on how to write, how to debate, how to articulate etc. One such section is a guidelines on how to express views.

About the story: I wish to humbly endeavour in conceptualizing this in a layman story format based on my own understanding of the literature. The story would unfold the seven approaches that are given in the literature.I plan to keep each story as a standalone so that the reader need not necessarily read the previous articles to understand but at the same time, there would also be some continuity.

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