The leader of a nation, the public servant, must epitomise civic virtues: he must be honest, law-abiding and selfless. Instead of speaking about justice, he must live it; not to talk about honesty, but to embody it; not to harm the progress of the nation, but to serve its progress, write former IAS officer V.S.Pandey, and Dr. Smita Pandey
Political discourse through the usage of metaphor, metonym and analogy constantly ‘spins’ yarns to not only capture the attention of the electorate but also to consolidate and maintain its support. This reaches its crescendo during election time when the media, especially social media is used to propagate catchy ‘slogans’, soundbites, hashtags and campaign rallies. Naom Chomsky had presciently warned the public of this manufacturing of consent through the propaganda system. He forewarned the public to, “bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.’’
In this political ‘war’ which ensues in the battle for the electorate’s votes – the discourse is dominated not by moral agendas of doing public good but by semantics, strategizing and terminology – Battleground, Campaign, hit the ground running-i.e. soldiers jumping from combat helicopters and running straight into the battlefield, damage control and collateral damage are some terms with which we are all too familiar nowadays. There is absence of only one salient factor in all this high stakes, no holds barred vicious confrontation –- irrespective of its geographic location – whether in the affluent West or India, the world’s greatest democracy or the ‘developing’ democracies- Fighting for the Truth, What’s right and best for society. Plato had categorised this political rhetoric as the manipulation of the audience by persuasively speaking people who were essentially skilled practitioners in manipulating their electorate into supporting their own selfish, power usurping agendas. Honesty and truth have been bleeding relentlessly as collateral damage in every electoral battle, globally.
What should a political leader be like? The ethical compassionate politician, should by every means including legislation, inculcate in his citizens basic virtues for a better life. He should be a teacher of virtue to his or her citizens: by example. Today, a politician’s words have completely lost credibility, even if they continue to persuade, even captivate us. Just because a politician tells us that he is honest, we are not guaranteed anything; he must prove it. The leader of a nation, the public servant, must epitomise civic virtues: he must be honest, law-abiding and selfless. Instead of speaking about justice, he must live it; not to talk about honesty, but to embody it; not to harm the progress of the nation, but to serve its progress. Is there any political leader who actually exemplifies substance and is not merely a well crafted image of what should be?
Politicians today expend all their energies and resources to project prodigiously -spending millions to portray themselves as the very epitome of goodness . Semantics has occupied centre stage in the recently held mother of all elections in the USA too. Universally electioneering have all the ingredients of a potboiler – accusations , counteraccusations, melodrama , gender and racial invectives ,inclusivity and diversity -a potpourri of inflammable issues which keep the electoral cauldron boiling throughout the election seasons. It becomes a thriller right up to the tumultuous nail-biting climax with one or the other emerging triumphant finally.
In the recently concluded USA elections, the president elect’s resounding victory is still being decoded. His espousal of tough anti-immigration-including astounding accusations that America was being swamped by the ‘great unwashed’’ ,was justified by his campaigners as responding to voters concerns. The election results seems to corroborate their view . He has changed the political lexicon while we are still jousting with the secular/ communal binary, the hard Hindutva /soft Hindutva propagators, socialists /left /right ,aam /khaas princelings.
Mild pronouncements where nefarious ‘’ yojnas’’ are concealed in the garb of welfare programmes of garibi removal and vikas and empowerment of the backward and oppressed -all the while ensuring only the empowerment of themselves and their cronies , Mr. Trump stands out. He bluntly called out his belligerent spades as spades-no veneer of toleration -American would be made great again by ousting illegal immigrants, jihadis and the like. He bluntly asserted that he would restrict China with exorbitant tariffs -no soft diplomacy here -totally in your face whereas we are still unable to tell the likes of Canada even today despite all the anti Indian activities going on there brazenly.
We need politicians who are righteous. Politicians who, through legislation and example, transmit civic virtues to the people. For Plato, the only citizen who was dedicated to the art of politics was Socrates, who ended up dead precisely for that reason: “what I constantly say is not to please, but seeks the greater good and not the greater pleasure” . Socrates sought to awaken justice and intrinsic virtues in the hearts of his citizens. Although he died because of this, his legacy is iconic. Those honest people who believe they have a vocation for politics, should not be apprehensive-they must take the plunge. It is only due to such people who walk the talk that the situation can and will change.
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary Government of India and Dr. Smita Pandey is Noida-based historian)
