Why India Needs More Intellectuals & honest people to join Politics ?
“Hello all!” our evergreen professor of PSM -preventive and social medicine, greeted our class of 1st MBBS “A very good morning to all of you!” “Good morning, Sir!!” we replied with great zeal. The subject of preventive and social medicine usually is taught in 2nd MBBS in most colleges, but since ours was a rural medical college, the subject was taught from 1st MBBS itself. Probably because it was felt that PSM was more necessary in the rural areas.
Dr. Sharma, our professor of PSM was different from our other teachers in the rural college. He was more sophisticated, spoke fluent English and more importantly made his lectures very interactive. We loved his lectures.
One morning he asked us asked us a seemingly simple question – “can anyone tell me what causes diarrhoea?” “That is simple sir, it is caused by viruses and other organisms that attack our gut!”, a smart girl from our batch promptly replied.
Another question followed – “Really? Tell me how that organisms reach our gut?”
Someone answered – “sir, they reach via contaminated water!”
So, sir asked – “what causes diarrhoea? Is it the contaminated water?”
We tended to agree that it was the water – “yes sir, contaminated water caused the diarrhoea”.
This led to Dr Sharma’s next question – “ok. Now tell me, why anyone would drink such contaminated water? Do you consume such water at home?”
Someone replied – “No sir, we have water purifier in our home. Poor people may not have such a machine at home. Thus, they may have no choice but to drink contaminated water.”
The professor continued with his further deductions – “Exactly. So, what causes diarrhoea? Is it poverty?”
“Yes sir” shouted the whole class !! with a sense of some strange enlightenment.
He smiled and said “Dear students, now you know that poverty causes diarrhoea. So ultimately, a disease does not have a simple cause. There are complex issues around an individual that finally lead to disease. These problems may be social, economic, or biological. This is called the WEB OF CAUSATION.” And then he continued speaking on the more medical aspects of the topic.
But the discussion that he had started did not stop in my mind. Was poverty the last reason? This led me to ask myself – what caused poverty? Why was the water supply so badly contaminated? The answers were not easy to find. But ultimately, I have understood that in some way or the other – every disease was caused, affected, or mismanaged because of a bad Preventive and curative Healthcare system, as a result of BAD POLITICS.
THE BIGGER DISEASE
Water supply is contaminated because we have bad corrupt politicians. People remain poor because their kids do not get chance to go in good schools because govt schools where they go are bad and they are bad because of bad politicians. People become poor when they must pay from their pocket when they are ill. All because the govt hospitals are free but lack facilities because the politicians are bad. Examples are so many and so forth.
Thus, the biggest disease of our society is bad politics.
WHY IS POLITICS CONSIDERED TO BE A BAD THING BY THE EDUCATED AND INTELLECTUALS?
Since independence, we are witnessing a steady decline in the quality of people joining politics. In the present Lok Sabha, we have about 30% MPs who have serious criminal charges against them. Such charges include rape, murder, and extortion. How can we expect good politics from bad people? How can we expect a rapist to support a bill that gives maximum punishment to rapists?
Amongst the remaining 70% of MPs most are uneducated or half-educated. They have hardly known science, forget about having a scientific temperament. So, their approach to issues is not just unscientific but many times anti-science. Take the example of what happened during the Covid deal with it. We had an inhuman lockdown, a delayed vaccination program, and a lack of enough oxygen (despite warning by concerned groups). Also, we had the ridiculous “tali bajao” and “thali bajao”. Our government was also promoting unverified cures for covid such as ‘arsenicum album’. The health minister was found promoting the much criticised alleged cure for covid – coronil!
When criminal and uneducated politicians rule the country, we see their bad influence in every field of life – be it health, economics, agriculture, or education. Thus, the biggest disease our country has today is BAD politicians.
AND WHY DO WE HAVE BAD AND HALF-EDUCATED POLITICIANS?
The answer is simple – because good and educated people tend to keep away from the politics! And thus, we see bad people entering politics and climbing the political ladder. There is a lot of nepotism too. Such people enter politics not to serve but to loot. They then create a system for themselves – which helps them to survive and progress in the political arena. They also create a feeling in society that – “politics is bad and is not for good people.” Thereby the educated, honest, and good people are purposefully repelled away from politics as it exists! And then there is no one to challenge the dishonest and half-educated politicians in India! They have free run.
EDUCATED AND HONEST SHOULD JOIN POLITICS
Let us revisit Dr. Sharma’s class that I attended 20 yrs ago. The web of causation ultimately leads to bad and dishonest politicians. The good and honest people must replace them to fight all the ills that make lives of common people miserable. Ills in healthcare, ills in economics, ills in education and all the ill-doings that we see all around us.
For this to happen, the honest and educated class of the country must come forward and claim their rightful space in the politics. They must shed all their dogmas about politics, come out of their comfort zones and shells of so-called neutrality, take stands, join politics, and contest elections.
If such people come forward and join politics, our country can hope to progress in the real sense. All the citizens can have access to good education, healthcare, govt services, good water, and uninterrupted electricity.
IS, HONEST PEOPLE ENTERING AND BECOMING SUCCESSFUL IN POLITICS, A UTOPIAN DREAM?
In my opinion – it is NOT! Many a politician, although few and far between, have proven that good people can not only join but win in electoral politics. Kejriwal’s AAP was a recent example of this. The party had several educated candidates who won in Delhi and Punjab. Off and on, educated people have also won from other parties too.
Thus, good people entering Indian politics and winning is not a dream but a necessary reality! The people of this country are waiting for the good lot to join politics and contest elections. For if they don’t, we will continue to be ruled by the dishonest, half-educated corrupt political class!