Politics has become profession of power, money: Justice Santosh Hegde

Politics has become a profession of power and money, and ceased to be a service, former Solicitor General of India Justice N Santosh Hegde rued on the country's independence day.

Speaking to PTI here, the retired Judge of the Supreme Court also said there should an all out effort to inculcate two social values -- contentment and humanism -- so that there could be solidarity and peace in the society.

Before independence many in the country fought against foreign rule and for independence without any monetary gain; it was because of their love for the country, it was a sacrifice, he recalled.

 

After independence people joined politics as a service to the nation and for a few decades elected representatives had no salary. Only their actual expenses were paid, the former Karnataka Lokayukta pointed out.

The role of an elected representative was only to attend the proceedings of their elected bodies like the Parliament or State Assemblies. The elected bodies' proceedings were for a period of 100 days in a year and their role was to make laws and policies.

There was no educational qualification required to become an elected representative and they had no role in administration. Hence, they had to find other legitimate sources for their survival. But in the last 50 years, whole structure of administration has changed.

The Executive, who under the Constitution were entrusted with the administration have been made subservient to the elected representatives. Consequently today, in reality, the elected representatives have become the masters of administration, which today entrusts so much power on them, he noted.

As the old saying goes "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely has become the slogan of the day, Justice Hegde said. Corruption in today's administration is well known.

"Politics has ceased to be a service, it has become a profession of power and money", he said.

"The last government in Karnataka was accused by the opposition as 40 per cent government which is generally accepted. Consequently, today the politics is no more a service; it has become a profession".

In reality today elected representatives are not public servants; they are public masters. Privileges they have which is self conferred makes them superior to other citizens. Only time they become equal to other citizens is on the eve of elections, he said.

"These are a few of the reasons which make me feel that the foundation of present-day politics should change if democracy should still have the definition 'Government of the people, by the people and for the people'", Justice Hegde said.

He, however, also said that since achieving Independence, the country has progressed substantially in almost all fronts though rural development has not been the same as urban development. As a result, there has been excess rural migration.

"The rural development is dependent on agriculture; hence sufficient monetary development from agriculture should be focused, apart from infrastructural development of the rural areas", the former Advocate General of Karnataka said.

"Our country's international status in the fields of Economics, Medical, and Space Science is appreciated globally", he added.