Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
Politics is the profession which can generate the strongest and most polarized reactions in our society. Politics is a serious business dealing with serious issues and it should be taken very seriously, and seriously intelligent people should pronounce on political matters. We stand blessed from time to time with some statesmen whose service to their country is selfless and well-intentioned, and we have also been blessed with some who are genuinely political thinkers and courageous leaders. We too had such politicians who have set examples of corruption, religious frenzy, sufferings and what not. The only difference between two different sets of politicians is because of different values of politics for them. Ideal politics talks of some ideals like truthfulness, welfare of the people, faithfulness and oppose individual benefit. In today’s India, the works for the national benefit, secularism, welfare etc. are the main themes for the value-based politics. But these days negligence regarding value-based politics is generally avoided. To acquire power, the political parties and political leaders do not mind ignoring value-based politics. Corruption, forceful politics and the presence of force, money and crime in politics are really harming the whole political system. Political values are shared convictions about what is important in a society. Some of the most important political values emphasize individual effort, the importance of the rule of law, Patriotism, and political tolerance. All people do not believe in the same political ideology, which describes the scope and purpose of government. In the recent past political values are vested in what is often called the creed. The core value i.e. political tolerance is missing such as; the willingness to allow groups with different ideologies to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. But it is an admitted reality that our political system does not extend political freedoms to groups they dislike. We have seen that political parties less believe in the rule of law which explains the idea that government is based on a body of law, agreed on by the governed, and is applied equally and justly. The Constitution is the foundation for the rule of law. What off and on, we find many statements of political persons, not conforming to the constitutional provisions. Values are the embodiment of what an organization stands for, and should be the basis for the behavior of its members. However, do we find that members of the same organization do not share and have not internalized the organization’s values? Additionally an organization may publish one set of values, perhaps in an effort to push forward a positive image, while the values that really guide organizational behavior are very different. We have come across many times, some disconnections within party platter and these disconnects have created problems both for the society as well as for the party. The political parties are brought to power for the proper functioning of the country, but actually what happens is sad. Once they are awarded with the responsibility they keep misusing it in the name of common people. They try to impose their power on people through various vulnerable means to fulfill their own needs and creeds. There are many people of principles in political parties but alas there is no political party of principles.
During 75 years of independence of India we failed to understand Political system which is badly affected by dirty politics based on caste creed, money and all others. We badly failed to make a corruption free people’s voting environment. This is because of the power centric political system, so it is not the question of value based politics only, it is the question of value based society also. We always curse politicians for doing all wrong i.e. corruption, immorality, fake commitment, dividing people in the name of religion, region, caste and language, but have we ever thought- why they do it, answer is very simple – they do it for us, they do it for vote and who gave them vote simply we. So the corrective measures are required to be initiated by correcting our self and then the politicians will get automatically corrected, because they will not have any scope for their wrong acts. Society needs to remind these politicians their duties which are protection of our rights, facilitate better opportunities for our social & economical growth, and continuously improve our surroundings so that we can live with dignity, peace and prosperity, once we mandate them as our representatives. We all are the citizens of this great country and we have to serve this nation. In view of the young India population at the majority, Youngsters should be motivated to choose politics as their career. Otherwise, our country, which seems to be developing and in fact, where there exists so many problems to be cured, will not be able to come in the list of developed countries ever.
Before independence the people were really patriotic and there were good leaders to govern them. When the generation is moving fast the “theory of existence” came into existence. And the morals and values become extinct. The humble and patriotic faces of the politicians turned greedy, cruel and cunning. They are more money eager and they are pseudo patriotic. There is a least choice of seeing the politicians, who are patriotic and selfless in the future, if the system will continue as is on date. Concluding, all of us are neck deep in politics everyday of our lives. Every organization on earth that involves human beings has its politics. If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is a conspiracy to seize power. Under the big political umbrella, a man is just like a leaf in the ocean, with no control of his destiny and does not have any choice. The politicians are able in a way defined by Winston Churchill, “A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.”
