Saturday 29 March 2014

Dare you become a politician? : Blog # 169

Dare you become a Politician?


Politicians are one class of people who get abused by one and all. Those among us who shy away from speaking ill of others also don’t stop throwing dirt at them unabashedly. Let me try and play a devil’s advocate for once in favor of the politicians.

Indian Politics, Indian Parliament, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Indian Presidential palaceTo begin with, the allegations of corruption against them! How many of us can vouch with utmost conviction that given that kind of an opportunity and access as given to politicians, you won’t get corrupted? Many a theory surrounding human behavior has proved time and again that in an unsupervised environment, we humans tend to behave in a way that benefits self often at the cost of the welfare of others. We must accept the fact that politicians are nothing but a slice of the demography that we are. If many of them are corrupt, it speaks volumes about us as a society. What should be done is to make changes in the system – make it less susceptible to corruption. For instance, what IT has done to many government projects. Red tape has come down and bribery is almost gone, thanks to the transparency and empowerment that IT lends to the system. Another solution is to increase the remuneration of our politicians. Come to think of it, a high ranking politician in the system earns just about the same as an MBA with 5 years of experience. And this designation comes to the politician, after a lifetime of toil.

Many a time, we ridicule politicians as a bunch of fools. Here, we are forgetting two facts. One, the number of politicians around you is countable. There is some merit to this exclusive lot of people. It is not easy getting to the elected positions where they have reached. Getting 100 followers on twitter is a challenge. Imagine getting lakhs of people to believe in your ideals and to vote for you! The second fact is that there are people who are high achievers in the political spectrum too. There are people who are extremely driven and hardworking. There are politicians who really care about the well being of people. It is unreasonable on our part to expect the same kind of dedication from every single politician. Again, being a politician is a job, it is a career choice. Don’t you have both kinds of colleagues – those who are extremely talented and those who has just as much intellect as a tadpole? Same is the case with the fraternity of politicians. There are good and bad people. We shouldn't pass a blanked judgment on the class of politicians.

The third and last argument in favor of politicians is the sacrifices they make. You can go on and on about the privileges that they enjoy. But let’s face it. Being accountable to a large constituency of people is no easy job. It is a 24*7*365 job, add to that the constant media scrutiny. Imagine yourself working under such an environment. Most of us can barely put up with being glared down by a manager and some of us can’t even be responsible towards our own family. Don’t you think we should cut some slack to the political beings?

Let me conclude my case by asking you a question. Given a chance, how many of you will wholeheartedly give up a peaceful Life which allows you the freedom to crib and become a politician? If you find yourself thinking even after a couple of minutes, it is time you started giving some much deserved respect to political class.

Arun Babu. 

No comments:

Post a Comment