When we utter the word 'politics', it instantly connects us with a politician, a political party, or a government. The objective behind this association is that every country needs a centrally administered institution to keep the country in check and to maintain uniformity. This whole process of acquiring that government organisation is where the politics come in. However, the reason why politics is generally implied as ‘filthy’, or ‘dirty’ is because of the acts of the politicians. Politics, in reality, isn’t dirty. It is the greedy and wily politicians who actually make it dirty. The reason why politics is indistinguishably connected to a permanent negative connotation is because politicians, with their power, abuse those powers.
The idea of dirty politics does not only revolve around corruption but also includes nepotism, favouritism, bias, and seeking personal feuds due to the power in one’s hands. The Merriam-Webster dictionary clarifies that the word ‘politician’ has had the secondary meaning of "a person primarily interested in political office for selfish or other narrow, usually short-sighted reasons" for as long as the word has existed.
Will the day ever come when politicians, with their ethical and moral political leadership, can re-store public trust so that the true meaning of the word ‘politics’ can be inferred, giving it a sanguine outlook?
Ranganathan Sivakumar
Chennai: 600 091.