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Coincidentally they both involved long time occupants of the high moral ground: Tarun Tejpal who had built his reputation on crusading investigative journalism, and Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Admi Party whose calling card was as the demolisher of corruption in the country.
Both, if reports are to be believed, were exposed this week for being hypocrites, not practising what they preached, not living up to their own standards of morality and having a dodgy set of values when it came to their own affairs.
Tejpal, whose magazine, Tehelka, has been a champion of women's rights amongst other things and has railed against sexual harassment and rape in the past, was accused by a young colleague of sexually assaulting her on not one but two occasions.
Kejriwal, who has shouted from the rooftops about corruption in the political system and has used the issue as a plank on which to launch his political career, has been accused in two sting operations of heading an outfit on the wrong side of transparency and financial integrity.
Moreover, both men over their career, have appeared to be fighting the good fight, on the side of justice and truth, against all odds and for the larger common good. Should their transgressions be viewed in this light?
Their supporters and sympathisers have been heard attempting to make this case for them, but to not much avail.
On one TV debate on the Tejpal issue, senior journalist Rahul Singh, who tried to balance out Tejpal's shocking behaviour with a plea to consider it against the good work he and his magazine have done, was all but shouted down by horrified panelists.
And the term 'hoisted on his own petard' could not have been better demonstrated than by the response to the Aam Admi Party's expose.
What this means is that there is a resounding thumbs down for the concept of the ends justifying the means: however hard you attempt to journey towards the goals of virtue and righteousness in the future - every second of that trek is also accountable. In fact, more so as these case have shown.
Many lessons can be surmised from the fall-out of these two high-profile public instances of human failure; and what is interesting is that most of them can be encapsulated in the very simple homilies we've been brought up on: people in glass houses should not throw stones is only the more obvious of them.
Those who preach high moral standards ought to do so only if they can practise them too. It is not enough to talk unless you are willing to walk the talk and live up to the high standards you have set for others.
But what is most worrying is that given the public anger against heroes with feet of clay, will any one dare set themselves up as crusaders in the future at all? And more pertinently: can human beings ever live up to the high moral standards they propound?
These and other questions have engaged me over the past few hours, even as I try and distance myself from the minute-by-minute breaking news hysteria of the incidents, to look for the deeper learnings and life's lessons they can teach us. I used to believe in the saying 'we all live in the gutter, but some of us look to the stars. '
But increasingly, I am of the opinion that the journey from the gutter to the stars is a very long one - one that very few amongst us are capable of completing.
Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasangghvi@hotmail.com
