The shocking revelation in The Hindu of April 29, headlined “Niece, friend of Adviser to Manmohan got land largesse from BEML co-op” must have left every reader of the paper in a state of stunned disbelief. The tidal waves of moral degeneration, which had hitherto been leaving most other institutions crumbled in its wake, seem now to have submerged what should have been the fountainhead, and the model and the mainspring, of values to which public servants should adhere.