Rupert Murdoch the top boss at News Corporation has cleared himself of all responsibility. He said that he had trusted his people but they misused their position. Accountability lies with them or with people whom they trusted in turn.

THE STORY of UK's 'News of the World, phone hacking' is getting murkier by the day. We still cannot say just who in the organization was responsible for the alleged phone tapping? Rupert Murdoch the top boss at News Corporation has cleared himself of all responsibility. He said that he had trusted his people but they misused their position. Accountability lies with them or with people whom they trusted in turn. He added that he has fifty thousand plus employees, worldwide, and 'News of the World' is only one percent of his business, he cannot keep an eye on everyone.

His logic is simple - if the driver of the car makes an accident, you do not put the owner of the car in jail. His detractors, however, are not amused. How can he (Murdoch) escape responsibility now when 'News of the World' is down, whereas, he hogged the limelight in its good times? We have to wait and watch the unfolding of the rest of the story to know how the accountability is fixed finally in this most interesting case.

It is likely to set a precedence for us too because many of our top companies are facing a similar imbroglio. Rather it seems we are already committed to punishing the top men everywhere. Our Suresh Kalmadi and Kanimozhi are in jail and with some possibility we would like Anil Ambani and Ratan Tata to be there too. On the political platform, we act even faster to scalp the top men. We did not blink an eyelid before removing Shashi Tharoor in IPL Kochi franchise case or Vilasrao Deshmukh in Adarsh scam. It appears that we have set very high standards of morality and probity for ourselves, which may not go with international practices.

Ever since Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then railway minister offered his resignation in the wake of a train accident, the opposition starts demanding resignations of ministers, chief ministers, prime minister, on the slightest suspicion of their being involved in something wrong. Perhaps we need to set new standards for ourselves after a thorough debate. However, one thing is certain, big bosses can no more say that they will have the cake and if something goes wrong, someone else face the flak.