Uniform Civil Code is long overdue. Demand has been raised several times over including Supreme Court directive too, yet politicians have successfully dodged it to secure their votes even at an enormous cost to the national well-being. Looking at the track-record of UPA I + II (2004-14), it is now absolutely necessary that a civil code of conduct for politicians must be drafted, finalised and strictly enforced. Political leadership and corporate leadership are entirely different. While corporate leadership is governed by laws of corporate affairs / management-practices and -theories etc., political leadership is much more challenging and difficult to restrain. Hence, it demands an altogether different approach and leadership model.
Political leadership aims at maximisation of social welfare objectives, demands commitment and hard work, excellent knowledge of economics, ethics without which future of nation would be jeopardised. Unlike corporate leadership, commitment to the weakest is the strongest for political leadership. It is obvious that political leadership must have a certain set of leadership qualities while concomitantly, must not have another set of leadership qualities compulsorily !! Indeed, if desirable qualities are there and pursued diligently, undesirable ones shall evaporate automatically.
A politician MUST NOT BE –
UNEDUCATED Certainly, I do not expect politicians to be MBA from Harvard Business School or be a Rhodes Scholar from London School of Economics yet, certainly not a High School pass-out of Bihar Board from some obscure ‘Charvaha School’ in a remote district of Bihar under RJD regime !! (S)He must be at least a PG from an established University in the country. In fact, fancy foreign degrees are now a suspect in terms of loyalty and commitment to the nation in addition to lack of right perspectives.
GREEDY This is the vice that explains eloquently why Neta’s overseas bank-balance had been swelling by the hour while nation slipped into the Big Bang phase by the minute. Politics is not a source of income or a full-time professional career. Politician must be obsessed with the thought of serving the nation selflessly, even at a great personal cost. For instance, Commonwealth Games should have been handled the way it should have been and not as an exercise to augment ‘wealth’ of a few (un)Common citizens. No opportunity to plunder the nation has been missed in history by ‘Videshi’ as well as ‘Deshi’ politicians. Sadly, nation was kicked into penury and public funds were looted much to the shock and dismay of entire population.
OPAQUE Politician must be completely transparent. Not only (s)he should be downright honest, (s)he should look honest, (s)he should appear honest. Reputation of a politician should be so formidable that anyone must think a hundred times before lobbing a corruption charge. For instance, reputation of GL Nanda / Narendra Modi / LB Shastri / George Fernandes etc. are excellent examples in this regard.
AVERSE TO INQUIRIES At the drop of hat, without even batting his / her eye-lids, politician must never resist, least of all rejecting demand of inquiry into his/ her conduct. Instead of finding alibis, he / she be eager to be examined whenever there is an allegation of misconduct by any agency of the country according to popular demand. At the end of every financial year, every politician must post every page of his / her every passbook of every bank-account on the website without even a trace of resistance or reluctance. Everyone in public life must be a Transparency-zealot.
GLUTTONOUS Eating, drinking, rejoicing must be strictly avoided, so should the large tummy / belly. It is simply disgusting to observe that when scores of people in the country have to starve for food and clean drinking water. Politician must be lean, thin, preferably under-fed with a burning fire in his / her belly yet not undernourished or malnourished, springing on his / her feet all the time !!!!
INACCESSIBLE Political leader must be easily available to people. Avoiding meeting people on account of any reason whatsoever, is a taboo for an effective politician.
LETHARGIC Lack of activity, agility is undesirable for a politician. He should be Adhyatma-ically strong, young and freshly brewed, bubbling with overflowing energy. Slothful political leader can turn entire nation appear saturnine. They must be pursuing Astangayoga, Brahmacarya etc. to remain young, healthy and active.
MERELY REACTIVE Political leader not only must not be merely reactive, but also actively proactive. He should be a visionary to anticipate problems / bottlenecks and take remedial measures much in advance to nip the problem in it’s bud.
ENVIOUS It is the evil that ensures downfall of a life-long track-record within split seconds when it comes to that. Competitive politics caused by envy / jealousy is the worst aspect of our national governance. Castigating an opponent even when he doing fine, scheming to destroy someone’s political career just because he may pose some sort of a discomfort sometime in future, is extremely reprehensible. When exposed, exposed it is always, it brings about unmitigated disaster upon so many. Leaders of various political parties must be honest in assessing others even in public. It shall go a long way in deifying their sincerity, integrity and credibility in addition to earning lot of respect among masses.
AMBITIOUS Politician is mandated to be ambitious for his / her nation and strictly not for herself / himself. Too ambitious to become Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh back-stabbed Prime Minister Morarji Desai and installed himself with ‘outside’ support of Indira Gandhi. Soon he too was back-stabbed and kicked out of power by the same Indira Gandhi, over-ambitious to remain in power. We all know too well how JL Nehru pushed out Sardara Patel to be Prime Minister for life and likes of Dr. Karna Singh to become President. If politicians enact Ambition-politics for themselves, nation suffers to no limits.
ARROGANT / PROUD / EGOISTIC Politician is called upon to be an epitome of humility, modesty and courtesy. These are virtues that develop a halo of charisma around him. Politician must be charismatic. Pride tells them to regard themselves invincible and take anyone for granted. Pride distances a politician from masses which ultimately, reduces them to the level of nothing in dust. They must not depend upon feedback / tales of glory fed to them by their respective Sycophant-brigades. They should preferably be surrounded by critics and the charisma that will be engendered, shall bring them closer to the people they are mandated to serve and that really does them invincible and not by tales of imaginary glories.
VINDICTIVE / VENOMOUS These two are most undesirable traits that a politician must not possess. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was unfortunately suffused with these venalities that degraded her into one of the most disliked and feared politicians in Government. Politician must be an epitome of compassion and forgiveness. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most prominent name in this regard.
WRATHFUL / ANGRY This is the worst of all vices that a politician can do with. Just one single instance of angry outburst before TV cameras and the entire political career is shattered into shards. Even a lifetime shall not be enough to pick up all scattered shards, glue them together to do a restart. Wrath is a certificate of incompetence and it’s absence, wisdom and fortitude. It is also a sign of deep-seated inferiority and insecurity complexes. Such politicians are rejected by the wayside within no time by the masses. In real life too, a politician must remain how (s)he appears and conducts herself / himself before TV cameras.
NARROW-MINDED Parochial considerations based on caste, creed, region, religion, language etc. must be strictly avoided. It is all the more unfortunate and condemnable parroting ‘Unity in Diversity’ every other moment while indulging in all sorts of discriminatory conduct based on narrow considerations. Such politicians should lose ground sooner than later.
DUPLICITOUS Whatever a politician commits, (s)he must stick to it thereafter and produce results thereof. After Bangladesh victory in 1971, Indira Gandhi won a massive Lok Sabha mandate with the slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’. ‘Garibi’ was never removed and she responded to a point-blank question after a few years from a journalist thus,”I never meant that I shall remove ‘Garibi’ just like that. What I meant was that let us all work together to eradicate ‘Garibi’”!!! That’s no way for a politician to deport himself or herself. That’s really ‘Hoodwink’ politics, to say the least.
IGNORANT In this era of information-explosion rather gluttony of it, politician must never quit the habit of studying to keep himself abreast of latest developments. Indeed, politicians must study regularly to remain learned as ever if they ever had been so in past even if fortuitously.
MYOPIC-SIGHTED Politician must have a vision. Without a well-defined vision, politician is a worthless worm, parasitic and a drag on good-governance. Vision for the nation, society, placement of the nation in comity of other nations etc. are of paramount importance. Vision-Document and Mission-Statement must be well-drafted, well-defined and available to all.
IRRELEVANT (S)He must remain relevant and useful to the nation so long as (s)he continues in politics.
MEMORIAL-SEEKER National capital has been transformed into an ugly graveyard beginning with Mughal-mazars then Congressi-mazars. It is not yet descrnible whether BJP shall follow the beaten rut in future. An ideal politician must write down and notarify his / her ‘Last Testament’ that Parliament need not be adjourned even for a single minute, national flag must NOT fly at half-mast, no official mourning be declared, no condolence meeting be organised to waste precious public time, strictly no memorial be raised in his / her name. Let the departed politician duly attend Public-Court to watch what others have to say about him / her. If (s)he had been really a great national asset, let there be a sudden unrestrained burst of public adulation in social-media, general course of discussions, let people burst into tears on hearing about him / her…minus self-immolations of Dravidians-Tamilians in Tamil Nadu !!
Not so impertinent to recall is the last will of Michael Henchard of The Mayor Of Casterbridge by Sir Thomas Hardy in this context –
MICHAEL HENCHARD’S WILL
“That Elizabeth-Jane Farfrae be not told of my death, or made to grieve on account of me.
“& that I be not bury’d in consecrated ground.
“& that no sexton be asked to toll the bell.
“& that nobody is wished to see my dead body.
“& that no murnurs walk behind me at my funeral.
“& that no flours be planted on my grave,
“& that no man remember me.
“To this I put my name.
“MICHAEL HENCHARD”
It is this utter sense of detachment, abandonment, renunciation and resignation that every ideal politician ought to be suffused with, serve society and nation quietly then walk away from Planet Earth. This Uniform Civil Code of Conduct For Politicians must be mandatory and pursued religiously.
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