Moral Equivalence

How it clarifies responses to revelations of wrongdoing

Moral equivalence is used when there is no moral equivalence.

Moral equivalence is when you deliberately equate, not apples with oranges, but an encroacher of an apple orchard with a roadside vendor who sells a rotten orange. It is the sly levelling of crimes which differ in momentous magnitude.

Moral equivalence is when Anjali Damania’s conversion of agricultur­al land to non-agricultural in a market transaction is made equal in proportion to Nitin Gadkari’s company getting the state govern­ment to allot 100 acres and diverting the waters of a dam. Even if they are two immoral acts, there is no moral equivalence.

Moral equivalence in when a Supreme Court advocate, KTS Tulsi, appears on a news channel and calls it ‘scandalous’ that IAS officer Ashok Khemka passed an order after he got his transfer papers. Implying therefore that it is more or as heinous as the Haryana government’s collusion in the easy pocketing of crores by Robert Vadra. It is not.

Moral equivalence is when it is argued that Anna Hazare’s beating up of alcoholics makes him unfit to demand a Lok Pal Bill 25 years later.

Moral equivalence is when a news anchor, good intention oozing from her face, tells an India Against Corruption spokesperson, “But but there are serious allegations against your members.” But but so what?  Such equivalence is done under the garb of balanced reporting, which it is not. Moral equivalence is neces­sary for that news anchor, even though her intention is not malicious. She needs to shock viewers every single day and Gadkari and Vadra have a shelf life of a week taken together. Therefore, even if the scale of the moral infringement is 1/100, forcing a moral equivalence is necessary to be in business.

Moral equivalence is the politi­cian’s favourite shield and his favourite weapon. It is instinctive to him. So instinctive that sometimes he does not think it necessary to even explain the equivalence. Like Digvijaya Singh saying he has information on the corruption of Atal Behari Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law and LK Advani’s daughter, thus drawing an equivalence with Vadra.

Moral equivalence works by continuous repetition until the noise drowns out the absurdity.

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

•