Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
My few words on the subject are not dissertation but an attempt to understand the word ‘politics’, which is disquieting and disheartening every common man, who feel deprived of his senses of understanding the politicians, prior to utilising their right of franchise, when the promises by these politicians prior to elections are exposed after their win as mere hollow.
Politics simply defined is ‘activities that relate to influencing the actions and policies of a government or getting and keeping power in a government.’ It is the work or job of people (elected persons) who are part of a government. Merriam-Webster’s iearners Dictionary define politics as ‘The art or science of government. The art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policies. The art or science concerned with winning and hold control over a government. Political activities characterised by artful and often dishonest practices’.
Many great people have defined politics in their own way such as; David Easton a Canadian – born American political scientist and professor of political science in Chicago University defined that ‘politics is the authoritative allocation of values for a society’. Lass well’s, American political scientist defined politics as ‘who gets what, when, and how’.
The first principle of unalienable rights recognises that everyone is naturally endowed by their creator with certain rights that cannot be infringed or given away. Amongst these rights are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. In order to secure or safeguard these vital rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from consent of the governed. The governments instituted among men are the elected representatives, who are also known as the politicians. These politicians are required to implement social reforms and policy measures that contribute to the general welfare of the populace. They represent the hopes, aspirations and the interests of every citizen of the country. According to Winston Churchill, who was British Prime Minister twice, once said; “a politician must have the ability to foretell, what is going to happen tomorrow, next Week, next month, and next year, and to have the ability afterward to explain why it didn’t happen”. W. H Auden a English-born poet and man of letters said “My deepest feeling about politicians is that they are dangerous lunatics to be avoided when possible and carefully humoured; people, above all, to whom one must never tell the truth”. Thomas Jefferson third President of United Sates of America (1801-1809) stated that “When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself a public property”. But we see in practical is that politics is a process of over-riding those who disagree with us. We live in a world where finding fault in others seems to be the favorite blood sport. It has long been the basis of political campaign strategy. It is the theme of much television programming across the world to raise their TRP. It sells newspapers. Whenever we meet anyone, our first, almost unconscious reaction may be to look for impressions. Someone has rightly quoted that ‘Politicians and diapers have one thing in common— they both should be changed regularly and for the same reason’. Politics always flourish in an healthy democracy but it is the sad story of our politics in India that majority of our projected leaders are rubber stamps and are for away from understanding true logic and meaning of the democracy. So some unknown has rightly quoted, Democracy: ‘Where any two idiots outvote a genius’. In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer. Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party. Promising politicians’ qualities are often backed by skills, experience, intelligence, integrity, with instincts. All combined together to achieve their goal. A faithful and effective politician is trustworthy and reliable. He makes promises and keeps those promises. Fake politicians are seen by voters when an election is near or change parties as footballers change clubs. They never show respect to the views and experience of others. They need to integrate its citizens with importance of political responsibility and democratic values. Time and again we see people coming into public life from the blind side and they even make headlines by what they say. These types of self-made politicians may become popular, or rather populist, but in itself they are more like the empty vessels that make most sound. They become representatives of people and also become the bulwark for corruption. Intelligent people, though at times driven by the circumstances of the moment, have a rather cloudy foresight. The most relevant and impressive definition of politics comes from Larry Hardeman, that word ‘politics is derived from the word ‘poly’, meaning many, and the word ‘ticks’, meaning blood sucking parasites. Closely analysing we come to the conclusion that the best politician/leader is possessed by following qualifications;
1. Education and Awareness: A person not educated is like a rotten egg which cannot be fertile. Un- aware person himself leads to the dark side of the humanity; he is deprived of Imaginations, Creativities, Inspirational Instinct, Self Assessment, Sharp Perception Decisiveness, Accountability, Confidence, Erroneous nature and Optimism.
2. Communicative: The person should have skill of communicating things in simple and impressive manner.
3. Trustworthy and Honest: True authority is born from respect because of the good character, honesty and trustworthiness of the person. One become dishonest in political life not only by taking monetary transactions but by other ways also such as; dishonest by actions, dishonest by back tracking commitments, dishonest by patronising criminal activities, dishonest by undue favors, dishonest by discriminations, dishonest by criminalisation of self and assisting criminals and many more.
4. Morally Honest: The morale means to have a sense of what is right, good, and truthful, based on an implied common standard or from within oneself.
5. Enthusiastic, Passionate, Dedicated and Inspirational: These characteristics play a great role to get branded as a politician/leader in real perspective.
6. Confident: The confidence is the sole energy which is the base to realise ones capacity to establish him as politician/leader.
7. Tolerable, Calm, and Composed: As the saying goes ‘Deep waters are calm and surface waters are shallow’ in nature. Good leaders should be tolerant of ambiguity and remain calm, composed and steadfast to the main purpose
8. Committed: The leader should be a personality of commitment and not a hollow ‘Wagon Wheel’ as distracting from commitments speaks of unreliability of the person and he is most dangerous in nature.
These characteristics are fundamental requirements of a politician who has to lead the common man as their leader. Some characteristics may be more naturally present in the personality of a leader. However, each of these characteristics can also be developed and strengthened. A good politician whether he naturally possesses these qualities or not, will be diligent to consistently develop and strengthen them in his leadership role. Summing up, Education, Delegating, Positive Attitude, Creativity, Inspire, Approach, Team Building, Risk Taking, Vision and Goal Setting, Self Assessment, Sharp Perception, Awareness, Decisiveness, Accountability, Confidence, Optimism, Honesty, Trustworthiness, Commitment, Tolerable, Calmness, and a Composed Nature are factors to brand a person as a politician and real leader.
Concluding we can easily sum up, that politics no doubt is a puzzle game but its player i.e. politicians with limited qualifications, merits and capabilities that are bad and not the game i.e. politics in itself’.