Taking politics in a pejorative sense as the last resort of scoundrels by educated Indians is no good to Indian democracy,  Justice A K Patnaik of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Kailash Gambhir of the Delhi High Court, Senior Lawyer Ram Jethmalani were unanimous in their view of this.

Addressing a national seminar on “Hating Politics Is A Crime Against Democracy” at the Russian Cultural Centre in Delhi on Friday evening, Justice Patnaik as the chief guest of the occasion said that ‘good turnout of voters at Panchayat elections and Municipal elections was an indication of people’s faith in democratic system. But expectation of good governance by people would end up with frustration if their basic needs were not taken care of’.

‘People’s expectations could be taken care of when they chose the right kind of leadership’, he said adding “politics in democracy is a citizens' responsibility”.

The chapter was selected from Advocate Biraja Mahapatra’s Book My Call for deliberation at the seminar which was jointly organized by civil society “Build India Group” and lawyers body “The Global Jurist”.

Introducing the topic, Mahapatra who runs the civil society Build India Group said, ‘proper management of resources at Panchayat level should be such that each and every citizen of the country should be assured of education, healthcare and employment as a matter of fundamental right. This could be assured only when leaders at the grass root level understand the value of vote and responsibility towards people for whom they are elected’.

Senior Advcoate Ram Jethmalani, Justice Kailash Gambhir, Parliament Member Govind Mishra, former media advisor in the Prime Minister’s office and media expert Prof A K Tandon hoped that young, committed and educated Indians would preserve the democracy by fulfilling legitimate expectations of the people.

Jethmalani said, ‘democracy is the precious gift to the mankind. It could be preserved only when people were educated and well informed to take their own responsibility’. He lamented that in Indian political system, education had been grossly neglected.

Mr Tandon said that, ‘there are some internet sites campaigning against politics and by doing so they were doing a disservice to the country’.

Mr Govind Mishra and other speakers were unanimous in view that education, employment and health care to every citizen would be the key to development and this could be assured only when politics is treated as a subject of management.

Presiding over the programme, Justice Gambhir said, ‘in fact politics is the most evolved subject of management and a great challenge for those who dare to take the responsibility of the country’.

Senior Advocate and Chairman of the committee K K Sharma offered the vote of thanks. Advocate Rajiv Saxena and Advcoate Manoj Sharma anchored the programme.

The pledge of allegiance to the constitution of India written by Mahapatra was also said by all gathered there. Sarthak Nayak and S K Rout announced that in January 2011, Build India Group would launch a protest programme against Terrorism involving all students in Delhi.

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