Politics has become an integral part of our lives. With the majority of the nations turning into a democracy, the number of politicians has increased to a large extent, along with their influence in our daily lives. Political debates and discussions are a household activity today. The scene in the world's largest democracy is quite the same, but if one had to delve deeper into the scenario, they will realize that these declamations are merely complaints against the way the government had be-fooled the citizens into gaining power. This is a confirmation of the ethics-less politics that exists in the nations across the world and time and again, it has proven to spell a disaster upon the economic and social welfare of a country and has hampered its development.
Benjamin Franklin, an accomplished statesman from America had once stated that even the smallest leak can sink a ship. This statesman holds the emphasis on the critical aspect of the caliber of ethics in politics. There are abundant examples in the history of the world that resulted in political disasters with diabolical repercussions just because ethics were neglected during the policy making. Starting with the French Revolution of 1879, which was brought into actions to restore stability to the peasants, but the results were anti-climatic with the peasants turning on the nobles and assaulted them as the resign of terror persisted in the country. Contemporary to the French Revolution was Industrial revolution. The market demands increased as the merchants became short-handed of raw materials to process. Additionally, the pressure of opening new market opportunities made the European politicians make decisions that led to large scale wars across Africa, Asia and South America. This led to the loss of countless lives as well as destruction of peaceful biospheres. Further aggravating conditions in Africa, the unethical policies, the European politicians and bureaucrats drafted to suit their own wishes, fragmented Africa to uneven states with utter disregard to the cultures and ethnicities of the inhabitants. This served as the foundation of the civil wars that marks the history of African nations.
The twentieth century saw the rise in demands of fossil fuels to generate energy for the functioning of industries that has been set up over the last century. The world was plagued with the politics that were involved especially the middle-east and gulf countries. The 1970's were infamous for the Vietnam war while the 1990's saw the gulf war in which the U.S. had active participation. While on the face value, these wars were fought on the pretext of fighting communism and dictatorship and restoring democracy. The actual intentions had always been to maintain monopoly over the resources that these countries provided. Be it the Afghan invasions, the Iraq invasions or annexation of Crimea, narrow political interests of the stronger nations have caused massive loss of life and property. Ethics have further been overlooked within nations themselves. Political leaders and governments have often used immoral methods as tools of power grabbing and establishing their dominance in the country. The military misadventures of Pakistan are a prime example of politicians throwing ethical standards into the drain. Entire generations have been also wiped out in the African nations.
The limited spectrum of political interests has not just given rise to wars and genocides. There are other forms of tragedies that have occured due to politicians of the concerned government paying no heed to their moral principles. The European nations have seen large scale influx of immigrants from Syria and other Islamic states that had been ravaged by unstable governments as well as terror outfits. The failure of politicians to incorporate ethical values in their decision has spent nothing but trouble around the globe.
With the multitude of corruption scandals and seams that have hit both the central as well as the state governments, the situation in our nation is no different than around the world. In fact, we have viewed upon it with much more scrutiny. Being a country which serves as the residence of wide range of religious, ethnicities, cultures, languages and social statuses, the perspective of politics is a tad bit different as compared to other nations but the basic ideology of shunning ethics to gain power remains the same. Following the lines of British rulers, the politicians have now taken up 'divide and rule' to remain in power. The division is based on the basis of caste, religion, language, and culture instigating mob mentally against other community, giving rise to hatred amongst them. The 1984 Sikh riots, the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, the 2002 Godhra riots, all had led to internal instability and incurred loss of innocent lives. There has been no doubt that the political leaders, incumbent as well as non-incumbent, had equal roles to play in all these mishaps. While they are not conducting riots, the unethical politicians keep themselves busy with the corruption charges that are being constantly filed against them. It is safe to say there is no death of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats in our parliament as well as government administrative services. There has been little to no mention of ethics in political discourses. While the concept of morality is debased, the politicians sure did deploy moral policy to keep in check immoral practices.
In a broad sense, not maintaining ethical standards in politics affects four main facts of our society or a nation in general - Intellect, Morality, Sociology and Economy. The intellectual damage has been evident with the fact that there are so many politicians 'ruling' their constituencies who are uneducated, while the educated brass caters to their services. These MPs and MLAs use their political leverage in the fields of arts, literature, science and sports to promote individuals of their choice instead of identifying real talent and showcasing them to the nation.
It is a difficult task to eradicate such an evil existence since it is a result of the choices that the politicians take and live with. Politicians are at the helm of the ship that our country is. It is upon them to steer it into the tempest or away from it. They should stop neglecting the needs of their people and become a lot more altruistic. We as responsible citizens can only use the best of our knowledge to bring into power the least corrupt and the most responsible leader that our collective intellect can decide upon and prevent actual narrow-minded selfish politicians from being in power and prevent unethical politics.
Love ,
Aashima
😵😵😵
👌👌👌