Thinking Political Ethics

In contemporary context the expression ‘Political Ethics’ may sound rather bizarre, an oxymoron. But it cannot be denied that every profession has its ethics, adhering to which is important. That people are not doing it is a different issue. But the crux is that ethical practices need to be followed in order to maintain the sanctity of the profession. Politics also is a profession. More so, in India where it provides jobs to a large number of jobless. At least during election times. So it may not be a bad idea to develop an ethical frame work for politics. May be some kind of a code of conduct. Yes, people would still defy it. But at least there will be this satisfaction that a frame work is there. Like for business people or medical practitioners or lawyers or advertisers. In fact, a code is most needed for the political class whose credibility in the present times is rather low.

Politics is perhaps the most essential of human activities. And it was millennia ago that Aristotle, the famous Greek Philosopher had averred that man is a political animal. There is no reason to believe that the nature of this animal has changed. And thus the need for a code. Worldwide polls on the confidence of people do not bet high on character of the political class, exceptions like our former PM, Dr Manmohan Singh notwithstanding. There is an old story dating back to around a decade when a US Presidential aspirant was seeking support from the people for his run to the senate.

The comments that was made sums it all. The people told him that he seemed to be a decent person. Why was he meddling in something as dirty as politics? And this can be safely generalised. Former MP and Union Minister Anil Shastri in a speech at a workshop provided sound enough validation of this generalisation while talking on values. He had said that it was rather unfortunate that the first declaration that an MP or an MLA signs after getting elected is a falsehood. He was referring to the money that was spent by the individual on the elections. Well, he was talking about only the first statement made. The big question then is, can ethics and politics go together? The same question, however, is raised for professions like business, law and advertising. And with corporatisation of everything even medicine and teaching professions are coming under cloud. Therefore, it is no longer about trying to figure out if the different professions and ethics are tenable. There is need to make them tenable.

More so, politics which is the mother of all professions. Mythologies suggest that even Gods played politics. So, it is no longer about why make politics ethical. It has to be done. Alfred Nobel once said that second to agriculture humbug is the second biggest industry of our age. Needless to say what this humbug business is all about.

For Otto von Bismarck, politics was the art of the possible and Einstein found it more difficult than Physics. But that apart, it is time to find out how to bring in some ethics in politics. Because that also is possible. Yes it may be more difficult than physics. But there have been people who have done it. Ethics in politics matters more than ever today and it can make a difference. Let us figure out how.