“Is an education necessary for politicians”
Showkat Ahmad Dar and Engineer Firdous Nazi
Education is the cornerstone of a civilised society. Its education that boosts up the minimum knowledge and intellect of a person. As well as education person is considered as a resource for the development of the country. Though wisdom and intelligence hold prominence over
education but without Education the wisdom lacks from grounds of
Certainty and evidence.
Aristotle a great scholar as Philosopher said
about education, ” The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead” But making education the sole criterion for politicians is not a beneficial resort.
India is the largest democracy in the world and its success cannot be deemed to rely first on the educational qualification of its leaders or politicians. The debate on the issue whether educational qualification can be made compulsory for politicians is an emotive one. In 2015 Govt
of Haryana enacted Haryana Panchayti Raj Amendment act 2015
setting a minimum educational criteria for contesting the local body
election. At the same time Govt of Rajasthan also Passed a legislation
for minimum qualification in local body election. The act outlined
various levels of minimum educational criteria for general candidates
women and Dalits.
A PIL was filed in the supreme court contesting the validity of such a law. Supreme court after hearing both sides said, ”
Its only education which gives a human being the power to discriminate between right and wrong, good or bad. “on this issue supreme court said that the govt as well within its rights to impose reasonable restrictions on the rights of people. So, was of the opinion that Right to contest elections were neither Fundamental right under law of land nor a common legal right, rather its a statutory right. Therefore its well within the prerogative of any govt to impose
minimum qualification criteria.
Our country has history of highly educated leaders since the time of independence but the importance and pivotal and role of education in the decision making leadership and as a fuel to run a country has
vanished.
Its desirable to make a minimum educational qualification can be
enforced so that our leaders are equipped with the ability to understand various issues with our sighted vision. India is suffering
from various challenges including economic development, infrastructure, health and Hygeine, poverty ,unemployment etc. The
reason behind failure in elimination of these evils is corruption that is
prevalent in our country because political power is coalesced with
economic power. Uneducated contestants are opined and believe that
economic power provides ample opportunity to control and gain benefits. Corrupt leaders are more inclined and capable of amassing
social wealth instead of working for the welfare of people.
However electing a right person to run the country may be difficult. A
leader has to be elected through observation of his communication
skills, literacy level, patriotism, honesty etc.
The electorate should be wise enough to analyse the background of the
electing contestants incase the arguable and debated criteria i.e
education is not at par. Earning and possessing highly educational
degrees may be bonus, but making education mandatory is
contradictory since a good leader must be more committed to social
service than a mere holder of degrees without the ability of making a
contributory change. Also, politicians are model citizens for the common
people. Therefore, its imperative that they have educational
qualification which can motivate common masses to emulate them. Its
evident that good and successful governance depends on the quality
of leadership, which is polished through education.Hence,minimum
education is must for politicians.
In a country like India, where people elect through a voting system based on caste, money and religion ways, a person who is properly educated can judge the whole scenario and can judge the minister’s potential too. Does the so called illogical Voting is enough..really? Though intelligence has more prominence over education, it’s
the education which boosts up the minimum knowledge
of an individual. A well educated man is considered as
the resource for the development of the country. And if
the leaders of the human resource are ill literate then there would be no proper guidelines for human
resource. An ill-literate leader would have no thinking, realising, amplifying and implementing ability, which he needs to uphold. Uneducated politician may misuse their power and in spite of thinking for development they will get themselves involved in criminal activities. They would not bother of citizens’ deficiency and problems. they would become corrupt. In order to prevent the country from all these shortcomings, rules should be implemented that “people having a limit of education qualification could take part in the political system of the country.” Hence, minimum education is must for
politicians.
Many of you will still consider this article contradictory but start thinking if we get a leader who is equally intelligent and well educated…
Still wondering why Indians are perpetually dissatisfied
with their rulers?
