Decline of ethical behaviour in TS politics
The Hans India (25-12-2022)
Ethics at a low ebb
Millennium Post (27-12-2022)
(In defiance of a legacy where
mutual respect defined political relations of leaders across parties,
politicians today are using unparliamentary languages and even epithets-Editor,
Millennium Post).
(Ethics in politics is necessary
for ensuring right behavior. For inculcating the sense of ethics among the politicians
and for attitudinal change, they may be exposed to a formal training on ethics
in politics. But who should take a lead? Can it be Election Commission of India
and the Chief Election Commissioner? Or a directive from Apex Court? But who will teach ethics to these fly-by-night
operators in politics to behave properly? If only their party seniors can
induce some manners, culture and decency to this type of foul-mouthed leaders,
on the lines of their illustrious leaders of the past, then there may be some remedy-Hans
India Editor’s synopsis)
India which got independence from the British
colonial rule, initially had a single political party domination, and to be
more precise, the Mahatma Gandhi’s Indian National Congress, that fought for
independence. Subsequently several parties emerged and couple of them were
recognized as National Parties, like the Communist Parties, the Jan Sangh
(later to be known as BJP etc. Democratic political systems, while performing
the function of representation, rest on the competition with a political
ambition to come to power. Modern democracy cannot function
without political parties. But how many of these adhere to ethics and morals in
politics is the question?
When regional parties started evolving
and posing challenge to national parties, monopoly of later started waning. As
a result, the initial decency and decorum maintained by National Parties’
leaders vanished out of insecurity, resulting in public outbursts and hurling
inconsequential abuses. Mass based regional parties like Telangana Rashtra
Samithi (Now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) uniting hundreds of thousands of
followers, were established with a genuine goal of achieving a separate state
and attempts to base itself on an appeal to the masses. Consequent to formation
of state it came to power and in the near future well poised to play crucial
role in national politics.
Against this backdrop,
any well-balanced person will have to agree, that, for a democracy like the
Indian, the crucial players namely the political leaders, above the party affiliations
should adhere to some decency, dignity and decorum, especially when they speak
in public and when they refer to their dignified opponents. Unfortunately, the
trend in the recent past in Telangana, which is catching up fast, has been
that, some vocal opposition party political leaders, that too representing a
National Party, holding responsible positions, while making statements in
public, day in and day out, are losing their balance. They are spitting venom
against the Chief Minister and his family members, in a language that is
crossing all permissible limits of decency. The language is very filthy,
unparliamentary, highly unbecoming and deplorable in unequivocal terms.
Unfortunately, one such
political leader in Telangana, occupying responsible position in party as well
as in law making body, though his known political history is not that too long,
has the idiosyncratic habit of using choicest epithets against BRS bigwigs
refereeing them in singular terms, be it against CM KCR or Minister KTR or MLC
Kavita or to that matter anyone belonging to BRS. He seldom spares any TRS/BRS
public representative for that matter. He seems to believe that use of filthy
and unparliamentarily language would attract people. How far his language and
abuses are putting his own party leaders to embarrassment is a million-dolor
question because, interestingly even the national leadership of that person is
conspicuously silent on his utterings.
In our country there
are several instances where in, some stormy petrel political leaders when used
some unpalatable offensive language against respected rival politicians, were
reprimanded by their own senior leadership and corrected them. For instance, soon
after the Janata government was formed at the center in 1977, the then Union
Industries Minister George Fernandez, a zealous critic of Indira Gandhi,
addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad described her as a ‘perennial
liar’ (Pathological lying, the chronic behavior of compulsive or
habitual lying). When the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai, came to know of
it, he gently warned him and told George to control from using such phrases, against
a senior politician and a former PM and instead, reframe as Mrs Indira Gandhi ‘seldom
speaks truth’ (People who used to tell lie in such a small matter and
rarely speak the truth), meaning almost the same. Gone those days and leaders!
However, there are some
still. During Corona pandemic times, when many opposition leaders made fun of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he urged the people to light a candle and
beat the utensils CM KCR at a media conference openly condemned it and said
that PM should not be criticized in that manner and he even asked the DGP to
book cases against those indulging in the mockery of PM. Like Morarji, KCR is
also an exception. Both have statesman like qualities.
In another instance, when
PV Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister, the then Leader of the Opposition Atal
Behari Vajpayee used to criticize the government incessantly, but with lot of
respect, decency and decorum. Notwithstanding all that, PV who as the PM had
deputed Vajpayee to speak on the Kashmir issue at the UN to everyone’s
surprise. Similarly, Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee shared special
bonding despite representing the opposite stream of politics. When Rajiv Gandhi
was the Prime Minister, he included Atal Bihari Vajpayee in an official
delegation to the UN so that the BJP leader could get treatment for his kidney
ailment in the US. This was made possible simply because the opposition
politicians of yester years were highly decent in their conduct to get respect
from party leaders in power. Why this is missing now cannot be understood.
However, criticism was
not uncommon even then. As a Parliament Member from the opposition, Vajpayee
used to criticize Nehru’s government inside and outside the Parliament. In one
of his speeches inside the Parliament, Vajpayee said that, he sees both
Churchill and Chamberlain in Nehru which evoked peals of laughter from none
other than Nehru himself. During the Janata government, when Nehru’s portrait
was removed from the Ministry of External Affairs office, Vajpayee took strong
objection to it and got it back to the office. Such was the mutual respect the
ruling and opposition had then. It also speaks a lot about their personality.
That was how mutual respect among politicians prevailed then. Why is this
missing now? No answer!
But who will teach ethics
to these fly-by-night operators in politics to behave properly? If only their
party seniors can induce some manners, culture and decency to this type of
foul-mouthed leaders, on the lines of their illustrious leaders of the past,
then there may be some remedy. Maybe it is high time now in our country to
redefine what is parliamentary language and what is un-parliamentary one? This
is important as more and more political leaders are indulging in a language
that can never be called decent or in tune with dignity and decorum.
Ethics in politics is necessary for
ensuring right behavior. For inculcating the sense of ethics among the politicians
and for attitudinal change, they may be exposed to a formal training on ethics
in politics. But who should take a lead? Can it be Election Commission of India
and the Chief Election Commissioner? Or a directive from Apex Court?
Ethics basically refers to the moral
codes of conduct of an individual. In fact, the goal in life for the individual
as well as society has been ultimately distilled in the concept of dharma
through thousands of years of our rich cultural tradition. If everybody
practices the concept of dharma, then that in itself brings a sense of
self-discipline. In a society where there is self-discipline, automatically
there will be self-boundary. The concepts of dharma as the foundation for practice
in politics are obvious. After all this is our age-old ancient philosophy,
culture and tradition.
The important component of training on
ethics in politics and for politicians has to be value which in turn will
provide right attitude and direction. It is predominantly the presence or
otherwise of human values and ethics, which will determine effectiveness of an
individual. An analysis of the malaise in the existing political situation,
however, shows that despite systems and institutions are in place, the human
element to drive these is lacking. Ethics must start with individual values and
individual integrity. Thus, there is a need to rekindle old principles and
ethical values to gain a sane perspective of work and personal life. Unethical fly-by-night politicians in Telangana shall
be in the order of priority to be exposed to such a value-based training in ethics.
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