Ethics at a low ebb

India which got independence from British colonial rule, initially had a single political party domination, precisely Mahatma Gandhi's Indian National Congress which fought for independence. Subsequently, several parties emerged and a 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 political ambition to come to power. Modern democracy cannot function without political parties. How many of these adhere to ethics and morals in politics is the question?

When regional parties started evolving and posing challenges to national parties, the 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 themselves on an appeal to the masses. Consequent to the formation of the state, it came to power, and in the near future, was poised to play a crucial role in national politics. Individual commitment to the cause is made mandatory to join such a party.

Against this backdrop, any well-balanced person will have to agree, that, for a democracy like India, the crucial players namely the political leaders, above the party affiliations should adhere to some decency, dignity and decorum, especially when they speak with the 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 Chief Ministers and their families, 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 a responsible position in the party as well as in the 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 the use of filthy and unparliamentary language would attract people. How far his language and abuses are putting his party leaders to embarrassment is a million-dollar question because interestingly even the national leadership of that person is conspicuously silent on his utterances.

In our country, there are several instances where some stormy petrel political leaders used some unpalatable offensive language against respected rival politicians. They were reprimanded by their senior leadership and corrected. 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'. When the then PM 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 it as Mrs Indira Gandhi 'seldom speaks the truth'. Gone are those days and leaders!

However, there are still some. During the pandemic, when many opposition leaders made fun of PM Modi when he urged the people to light a candle and beat the utensils, CM KCR 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 the PM. Like Morarji, KCR is also an exception. Both have statesman-like qualities.

In another instance, when PV Narasimha Rao was the PM, the then Leader of the Opposition Atal Behari Vajpayee used to criticize the government incessantly, but with a lot of respect, decency and decorum. Notwithstanding all that, PV who was 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 PM, 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 yesteryears were highly decent in their conduct to get respect from party leaders in power.

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?

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'. 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.

An analysis of these unethical practices of abuse by some politicians reveals the necessity of exposing them to attitudinal change. Ethics in politics is necessary for ensuring the right behaviour. For inculcating a sense of ethics among the politicians and for attitudinal change, they may be exposed to formal training on ethics in politics. But who should take a lead? Can it be the Election Commission of India and the Chief Election Commissioner? Or a directive from the Apex Court?

Ethics refers to the moral codes of conduct of an individual. 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 values that in turn will provide the right attitude and direction. It is predominantly the presence or otherwise of human values and ethics, which will determine the effectiveness of an individual. An analysis of the malaise in the existing political situation, however, shows that despite systems and institutions 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 value-based training in ethics.

The writer is the Chief Public Relations Officer to the CM of Telangana. Views expressed are personal