Omkar Dattatray
The value crisis has unfortunately gripped all the walks of life and the field of politics is no exception. Politics is grappling with the value crisis as never before and clean and pure politics is the thing of bygone good days and the need of value based politics is the need of hour and the government, politicians, thinkers, intelligentsia and the common people should make concerted and sincere as well as serious efforts to bring purity in politics and give a goodbye to the dirty politics which has sadly become a norm and reality of politics in modern times. There is all round moral determination in politics and the politicians baring a very little number care too hoots for the clean politics and the politics is full of the mess called dirty politics. The political hygiene in the country is at a very low level and politics is marred by degradation and moral turpitude is very high as the whole field of politics is facing value crisis as honest politics is the thing of yester years. The good old days of clean politics have come to end and there is overall deterioration in the politics of the country. The clean politics of the days of veteran leader and statesman Late Gulzari Nanda are a thing of past and there is dwindling in the moral fabric of politics and there is urgent need for value based politics and all of us should play our part in bringing value based politics and purging the polity from dirt and filth.Purging politics from moral turpitude is the talk of the town.We need value based politics in the country.So we should elect honest persons to represent and rule us.The present generation must show interest in coming to politics ,then only can our country can become a developed country.Today the condition and health of politics in the country is in worst position .Media has to play a positive role in brining pure and clean politics in India.Media must bring the real face of political parties and politicians in the country.People must inculcate the value of humanity ,truthfulness etc and encourage the youth to join the field of politics for primarily for serving the country and secondary for earning a decent living.Politics is a philosophy ,old ideology and a school of thought in human civilization.Politics really matters a lot in the 21st century in Indian democracy.Politics has always been placed in high esteem.Since times immemorial politics is a profession ,vocation for a few ,life to some.But gone are the golden days of true ,ideal and real politics in India.There are many perplexing loopholes between politics as a theory and politics as a practice.It is very important that in our parliamentary democracy we should vote for those candidates whose are honest and selfless and whose track record is fine and we as voters should never vote for any candidate on the basis of belonging to our community or caste but on the basis of his moral values and honesty.Democracy without education is hypocrisy and there should be a law that a candidate should possess a certain minimum educational qualification for contesting any election and this will greatly help in bringing morality and uprightness in politics and in introducing value based politics in our system.We need such a type of politicians who can bring transparency in government processes as well as in the welfare schemes in the country.During 70 years of independence of India ,political system is badly affected by the virus of dirty politics as caste ,creed,money and muscle power.Value based politics is not heard too often in India.We should also know the meaning of word politics as there is confusion about it.The original meaning of politics is long forgotten thanks to what politics has become today.We only hear that politics is a dirty game and politics is the last resort of a scoundrel. According to Aristotle, ’’Politics is a noble activity in which men decide the rules they will live by and the goals they will collectively pursue.’’ This correlates with his definition of state,’’State comes into existence originating in the bare needs of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life. ’’Valus are deep seated. Reserch demonstrates that it is values that derive emotions,and these in turn drive our rational explanations of our stated purpose.This model argues that the way we vote or choose a party/candidate to support ,the kinds of law we think are good or bad and the right or wrong way to run business organizations is so deeply held it can be hard to articulate. The role of market and value researchers is to dig below the rationale and to understand why these opinions are held or these actions occur. India has always been the believer of value based politics. It recommends that all politicians should represent the public opinion and should give voice to it within the parliament. The parliament should be the place where educated, committed and dignified representatives work. Our constitution forms a comprehensive system which promotes ideas such as unity in diversity and fundamental rights for citizens .Ideal politics talks of some ideals, like truthfulness, welfare of people, faithfulness and oppose selfish interests. When the political leaders and political parties follow above mentioned policies ,then their politics will be called value based politics.In today’s India ,the works for national benefit ,secularism,welfare etc are the main themes for value based politics.But these days negligence regarding the value based politics is generally avoided.Unfortunately there is political corruption from top to bottom of the political hierarchy and scams and scandals is the order of the day as the politics is mired in deep corruption and an honest politician is an odd man out in politics and there is need to purgethe politics from political corruption so that ideal and true politics will thrive and flourish in the country.There is political corruption in the country and the need is to combat and free the politics from corruption.There is also criminal –political nexus in the country and it is very sad that a big number of the MP’s ,MLA’s ,ministers and other public representatives have FIR’s lodged against them and many political leaders have criminal gangster nexus and still some of the public representatives have been convicted by the judiciary. There is the spectacle of criminalization of politics and there is urgent need to clean the politics from criminalization which has invaded our polity and there is need to end this politico-.criminal nexus afflicting our political system so that there is clean and pure politics free from criminal political nexus. There is utmost need to follow the principles of clean politics and value based politics in the political system of the country and the voters should be educated and made aware about the need to vote clean and honest candidates so that peoples representatives will function in the best interests of the public welfare and the dirty politics is reduced to minimum. Let us all contribute towards the value based politics so that the tag of politics being the dirty game is given a go bye and clean and pure politics is established in the country.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist)
