Political morality lost

Though respect to public mandate is the benchmark of political morality but greed of power and money has changed the contours and colors of politics in Jammu & Kashmir and other states of the country. The election of one political combination for the post of Mayor and victory of another political combination for the post of Deputy Mayor in Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) early this month shows that the public representatives sell the public mandate for power and pelf. If the corporators who casted their votes to elect Mayor and Deputy Mayor would have been concerned about the political conscience they won’t have voted for one political combination for the post of Mayor and chooses to vote for another political combination for the post of Deputy Mayor. No doubt that amendment invoked in Jammu & Kashmir municipal act for election of the heads of municipal bodies through secret ballot opened gates for horse-trading but had the corporators voted according to their conscience the secret ballot won’t have made any difference in the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Today corporators have sold their conscience for one reason or the other to elect the candidate of one political combination for the post of Mayor and the other person of another political combination for the post of Mayor but may be tomorrow legislators take a queue from the immorality shown by the corporators and vote against their political conscience. Power if lost can be regained at the cost of public trust but conscience once sold can’t change the perception about the morality in any sapphire of public life particularly politics. People can repose trust in those who keep conscience but reject those who sell conscience for power in the coming years.