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.
To 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.
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