VALUE BASED POLITICS- need of hour

India has always been a firm believer of value-based politics. It recommends that all politicians should represent the public opinion and should give voice to it within Parliament. The parliament should be a place where educated, committed and dignified representatives rule the roost.

Our Constitution forms a fairly comprehensive scheme which promotes ideas such as tolerance for diversity, fundamental freedoms for citizens. When we speak of values, it is these constitutional principles that provide a road map for our political leaders.

There are four categories of values: physical values, mental values, social values and political values. This last category is the one that interests us.

Today, we have a fractured polity, which is almost totally governed by politics of confrontation, if not hatred of each other. The country is overtaken by intolerance, divisiveness, corruption, violence, conflict and disrespect for dissent, which are seriously vitiating our social cohesion. Such confrontational politics has made language, region and religion divisive issues. Leadership based on such dangerously divisive factors seems to be oblivious of our most cherished national values such as tolerance and co-existence.

What is even more worrisome is the fact that political polarization is sought in the name of narrow and divisive identities, whose preferred language is often that of taking recourse to violence rather than the democratic and civilized methods of discussion and dialogue. Criminals are being used to settle political scores and in the process criminals are crossing the line and entering politics. This has led to criminalization of politics or rather to politicization of crime!

One most disconcerting trend, which has emerged in recent times, is that the Parliament, the lofty temple of our democracy, has come to be the playground for acute confrontational politics. The malady of money-power has become so deep-rooted that it has even begun to intervene directly with the functioning of our core democratic institutions. The sanctity of Parliament has begun to desecrate in the process.

There is today, no doubt, an all-pervading need to infuse various areas of our national life with moral values and, in this process, politics should come first.

The price we pay for political indifference is bad governance, which affects almost every aspect of our life. We cannot expect to get good governance from bad politics. Therefore, making our national life ethically and morally sound and efficient by the inclusion of committed and untainted persons in our mainstream politics is one of the most pressing needs of our times.

The nation is desperately looking and searching for leaders with integrity and a national vision in our Parliament, the highest forum of democratic debate and civilized behaviour. The practice of rushing to the well, shouting slogans, flouting rules, creation of uproarious scenes warranting frequent adjournments of the House, the open and deliberate disregard of the Chair and several other maladies we have regularly witnessed in our Parliament are all unfailing symptoms of the relentless erosion of values in our public life.

Due to Election process, the so-called ‘representatives’ are insulated from their constituents. When their seats and funding become secure, they become completely unaccountable to the people.

If our elected representative is proving to be corrupt, irresponsible or indifferent towards people’s causes, the citizens are left with no choice other than to wait till the next election. This brings us to the question of how to express our disapproval of the erosion of values in politics.

Some analysts believe that it is high time we thought of incorporating the concept of Right to Recall in our Constitution. If only the electors have the right to question and hold their representatives accountable for their acts of omission and commission without having to wait till the next elections, our public life would, perhaps, become better. The public must be empowered to initiate action when the situation so demands.

It is essential that all political parties grow above partisan politics and demonstrate the willingness as also the sincerity to draw up and implement schemes with well-chosen priorities

Issues of development, in which the common people have the greatest stake, cannot be subjected to political muscle-flexing. Matters of vital national interest should not be made a casualty of partisan, recriminatory and destructive politics.

To be a respectable career, politics has to be based on certain essential and basic values. The nation as a whole must bring values to the centre-stage of our public life. This can be achieved only if committed and conscientious people, particularly the youth, come into the arena of politics and deal with the problems from within, which obviously cannot be done by outsiders. We have to make sure that only those candidates who possess discipline, honesty and transparency should pass the test.