How to Be a Thick Skinned Politician and Win Arguments

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    How to Guide

    A study of strategies adopted by politicians in a discussion

    or

    Citizens Guide to interpreting discussion that has politicians as participants

    or

    Anatomy of political discussion

    or

    How to be a thick skinned politicians and win a debate

    or

    Politicians perfect recipe to drive Indian citizen nuts through discussions.

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    Introduction

    All of us are familiar with TV discussion shows. The present document is intended for Discussion

    leaders, audience, debaters, students of journalism, politicians, spokesperson of political parties,

    citizens. The emphasis is on decoding political discussions with a view to give insight of such

    discussions to readers. A political discussion is usually one in which a naked participants laughs and

    ridicules nakedness of the other. There are hardly any discussions that can be put in column of

    healthy/constructive or meaningful discussions. The purpose appears to outsmart the opponents in

    confusing audience.

    The document guides a party spokesperson on how to participate in a discussion. The FAQ approach

    has been adopted to present this document.

    A. Who will be my discussion leader and will he/she be unfriendly?Your first worry could be whether your discussion leader will be friendly or will shoot

    uncomfortable questions? Obviously you know about your can be sure about your opponents

    that they will not be friendly even if the discussion is regarding global warming. Well you will

    know about discussion leading journalist if you are in politics for quite some time. If new to

    politics you can consult your seniors. The journalists come in great variety-

    They may be already loyal to your party and everyone may know this fact (includingaudience). You may see one of these as your colleagues in Rajya Sabha in future.

    Some of them may be covertly working for your party. No, do not jump to conclusionthat they too will join party in near future or will be inducted in Rajya Sabha. Political

    parties need some journalists who can help them without joining them. This way they

    can take advantage of credibility of journalists in their favour. Such journalists are far

    more useful than those who have joined politics on full time basis.

    Some journalists who are considered neutral may be those who have yet not decidedwhich party to join or still others may have calculated that major parties have several

    wannabe Rajyasabha members on their rolls so they do not stand a chance. The overall

    setup of the country leaves little room for a journalist or media house to be neutral but

    still some rare ones may be truly neutral.

    Loyal one will help you out of the way and journalists loyal to other parties will try totear your arguments apart.

    B. What are the basic postulates?To be a successful debater you should keep the following things in mind-

    Audience is ignorant, dumb and idiot. It will know only what you allow them to know. Itwill believe whatever you want it to believe and this you can do by speaking lie, half

    truths etc.

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    Discussion leader, if investigating a matter against your party, is biased, misinformed,suffers from a lynch mob mentality and runs a kangaroo court. If the same journalist is

    investigating a case against your opponents, is true savior of democracy.

    Each member of your party says absolutely sane and appropriate things. Your party hasdone nothing wrong in past. You are devoted to cause of service of common people.

    Whatever your opponents do or say is wrong. They can never be right. When your opponents aspire to form government, they are hungry for power and when

    you do the same, you do it for the welfare of public.

    When your opponents lose elections or seat it is disapproval of their policies andoutright rejection by citizens. When your party loses seats or election it is immaterial as

    it could be due to caste politics not working your way, petty regional issues getting

    priority over noble issues that you work for, anti-incumbency factor, not being able to

    convey achievements to masses, opposition succeeding in its malicious agenda etc.

    Do not restrain yourself in alleging others fearing that you will be dragged in furtherdiscussion if you utter something that was patently wrong. Rely on frequent events that

    keep media busy. You will certainly receive a call from media house but not to try you on

    something that you spoke during last discussion but to give your learned comments on

    new incident that perplexes country.

    C. Should I participate in debate if I am under prepared or my part is entirely on wrong side?Whether prepared or unprepared, whether your party is wrong or right you must not miss anyopportunity to appear on a TV show, be viewed by public, sacrifice yourself for your party. If not

    convinced I have the following points for your perusal-

    You can count on under preparedness of your opponents. Think about your level of confidence if you are able to do well in spite of being

    underprepared.

    Your party expects that you should return the favours. Should I remind you about the Lionand Rabbit story of Panchatantra. You are expected to play a role of poor sacrificial animals

    (party spokesperson) to save others (party and alleged leaders), mass destruction (exposes)

    or have to overcome by driving the cruel and ruthless lion to well (misleading media and

    public). Just think about the relief that you will be able to give to your party if you are able

    drown the lion in the well.

    If you are sure that your opponents shall be armed to the teeth and you will be like asacrificial lamb even then you should not decline the offer. Your party will look at you as fair

    weather friend and absence of your party's representative shall be treated as accepting the

    allegations. So what? Should you go and make yourself a target of bashing? Yes, try to see

    the advantages. Try to look beyond yourself. The common man does not want to find out

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    who the culprit is. It gives vicarious pleasure to him to see the politicians getting insulted in

    public view. He knows that if corrupt politicians cannot be brought to justice at least they

    should be insulted. So someone has to bear the anger of public. Is it insulting or demeaning?

    No, it is a management strategy. Nowadays all corporate houses promote employees to vent

    their anger against bosses by various means (beating a doll, hitting picture of boss with darts

    etc). This is a nonviolent method. No bloodsheds. Everyone comes angry, vents his/her

    anger goes back to work with offloading himself/herself with pent-up anger.

    I know you are not a selfish person but just look at the view point of a selfish person. Theheavier beating you receive at discussion show and the more you try to defend the un-

    defendable the more will your stature grow in your party. Just imagine where you can be if

    you keep on doing this. You will certainly be elevated to a minister from a mere

    spokesperson.

    Even if you see your party as a thankless party that does not reward party loyalists just thinkabout your personal gains. More and more people will recognize your face. Your party may

    not be willing to reward you but in public opinion you will be treated as someone very close

    to party. This will make you entitled to many benefits that come from route of name-

    dropping and being connected. If you are able to show your skills in being loyal to your party

    and able to defend the undefendable other parties may want a loyalist like you in their

    party and you can take a jump by shifting to other parties.

    If you keep on arguing like this your lungs will function effectively. You can learn skills ofstress management. You will have fewer heart attacks. You will live longer.

    D. During the discussionBasics

    1. Gesture and Posture: Gesture and posture reveal you discomfort. If you want to see yourselfamongst high ranked scoundrel politicians you have to master your gestures and postures.

    No party likes a politician whose gesture and posture reveal the truth. To be a successful

    politician you should not only learn to speak lie from your mouth but the entire body should

    be in tune with your lie-shooting mouth. Sit very comfortably. Wear a smile on your face.

    The bigger the charge the bigger the smile should be. Behave as if you are not at all

    perturbed by the charges and the situation is well under control. Nothing better than that if

    you can give a look as if you are thoroughly enjoying the situation and seeing this as an

    opportunity to expose your opponent.

    2. Ploy of opposition (Vipaksha ki chaal): Whenever a charge is leveled against your partysimply disown it in first round and tell that it has no substance in it. Remind that the

    opposition is hell bent to come back to power so they are leveling unfounded charges

    against your party. Not much time will pass before your arguments of allegation being

    unfounded will explode as people will come up with proofs, sequence of events, etc. The

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    next good strategy is not to directly answer a question but remind them about misdeeds of

    others.

    3. Allege someone else for which you have been alleged: This may appear to be a very naive,foolish and out-of-fashion strategy but it still works. It is like a steam engine that is

    inefficient but still delivering. Try to turn any allegation raised against you or your party

    towards opposition, journalists, media, judicial activism, lynch mob mentality, kangaroo

    court, belligerent nations, election commission, CBI, etc. It will be difficult initially but it will

    come through practice. There can be two strategies for doing so-

    a. Head first: Decide the logic first and then the target. I mean decide the logic bywhich you can allege someone else first and then find the target.

    b. Leg first: This strategy takes birth from logic that there is no need to be logical fordoing something illogical. For this you are required to decide your adversary first

    and then think as to how you can allege this enemy for allegations made against

    you.

    Examples: Discussion touches issue of audit of accounts of political parties. Niramla Sitaraman alleges

    Election Commission for this(37.13 m).

    When asked a question about buying votes of MPs in 2008 Manish Tiwari alleges BJP for theentire episode. (4.40 m ) Later Prakash Javdekar says- Ulta chor kotwal ko dante. Watch

    same video to see Sudhindra Kulkarni and Prakash Javdekar alleging Congress (8 m).

    Journalists alleges that BJP was looking for buyers on this Prakash alleges Congress. (14.50m).

    Fortunately each party has a repertoire of misdeeds; wrong-doings and violations so make

    prior preparation and find out the suitable case. The charges may be corruption,

    misappropriation, violation of procedure, disobeying court verdicts, playing dilatory tactics,

    nepotism, cronyism, favouratism, high handedness, destruction of public property etc.

    The phrases you may use-

    Look who is talking. (This will be more effective if you can garnish it with appropriatehand movements and facial expressions.

    Pot calling the cattle black. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others. What is good for the Peter should be good for Paul. Running with hare and hunting with hound

    What to do when I am not prepared?

    4. Ask for adequate time: Just start with saying "I hope you will give me fair chance to putforth my point" or "I hope you will give me at least half the time that you have given to other

    panelists". After this say "let me put in right perspective" and then start from big-bang

    theory or from origin of universe. Somebody would surely interrupt and relieve you. If the

    discussion passes on to this speaker you can allege (i) the discussion leader for being unfair,

    (ii) the opponents for being unruly.

    5. I have not read it: If you are asked to comment on a judgment/report regarding which yourparty is at receiving end do not accept the fact that you have seen/read the report/judgment

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    (even if you remember everything by heart). Your first sentence should be that you have

    not read the report or it has yet not been made public and you have not read this. Tell them

    that you and your party will study the report and come back to you. You can also tell them

    that you have just returned from a busy and responsible assignment (ek teer se do nishane-

    disclaimer plus showing that you are important and (yet) responsible). After announcing all

    these disclaimers now defend the report point by point. If someone dares you ask as to how

    you know all these things tell them that you were listening to TV discussion throughout the

    day. Can someone ask you that how come you could not get the copy be dishonest and tell

    him that you are not as resourceful as him. What if you disclose something that was not part

    of media debate? Do not worry no one will come to know. No one can scan all channels;

    moreover you can always implicate a journalist who phoned you to invite your reaction on

    this so far unrevealed point.

    6. I have read it: If you are not on receiving end of the report than it is obvious that you havereceived and read the report. A point of caution, if it is improper to get a leaked report do

    not miss to mention that your media friends have made the report available to you and thatyou do not know whether it is the genuine report of a fake one (even though you know that

    the official that you had obliged during your term has given you the report against favour

    done to him/her).

    Remember the ground rule-

    If the report is against you or your party then you have not read it.

    If the report is against your rivals you have read each word of it.

    7. Resort to History: Know history, episodes etc. Repeat them to instigate and send youropponent off-balance.

    8. When you are hit make everyone a party- If someone hits you or your political party, adopta strategy that has worked well till date in India. Tell your opponent that you will not

    tolerate insult of your religion or of your State (prant) or your language. Tell him/her that

    he/she has hurt asmita of your State/religion/language.

    Denials and disowning

    9. Deny everything: There is not an iota of evidence. Manish Tiwari on outsourcing operationof Cash for Votes to Amar SinghSo ridiculous that I will not respond. (22.05 m)

    10.Disowning what you have said: You will be required to disown things that you have saidearlier. What you will say in context of your opponents shall be reminded to you in terms of

    your allies/party man. The venom that you eject for your opponent will become your liability

    once this person joins your party. Your party will change its stand. There shall be

    innumerous reasons for you to disown your statement or for rather derogatory thook-chat.

    What should you do?

    a. Be dishonest and tell that you never said that.b. If played to you again and it matches word to word remind about the context and

    lines spoken before or after it (some of the scoundrel journalists may not be

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    interested in Rajya Sabha or may have sensed that they will not get a seat since

    queue is very long). If not, tell them what you meant and not what people

    understood. Do not spare any effort to confuse.

    c. If it is private telephonic conversation wholly disowns the conversation. You nevertalked to this person. You do not know him/her. This is not your voice. The audio can

    be alleged to have been morphed/doctored/alleged etc. ( do not say everything in

    one go, use the options in chronological order- initially say that you do not know this

    person and later on keep changing the versions as it suits you).

    d. If someone comes out with test report question intentions and authenticity.

    Techniques to confuse discussion leader, opponents and ultimately the audience

    11.Let us concentrate on lager issues: When asked about specific issues that are starkly againstyou, use this method.

    12.Keeping shuttling between broader issues to specific issues: When asked about specificissue answer general issues. When question is raised about general or broader question

    confuse audience by drawing attention to specific issues.When asked a broader question as

    to why MLAs are escorted to safe locations just before a crucial vote Prakash Javadekar

    demands a CBI inquiry into 2008 Cash for vote issue(28.30m).

    13.Logical doublespeak use of 'Having said that': This phrase is very useful when you arepushed to wall and have to accept a thing that is certainly against stand taken by you/your

    party. In such a case begin carefully by saying things which are prudent and that fall in line

    with public opinion. Once you have showcased yourself and your party as fair, democratic

    and law abiding party use the phrase 'having said that' and now try to justify everything by

    citing all wrong deeds or opponents, blaming compulsion of circumstances, extraordinary

    conditions, etc.

    14.Confuse them by telling who you represent: You can easily ward off 50% of attacks bytelling that you represent party and not the government or government not the party. No

    one will mind even if later in discussion you make claims on behalf of one that you do not

    represent. No one will ask you that you represent a party who is in ruling so you should be

    able to speak on behalf of both. (Sometimes be specific about your own party sometimes

    talk about parties in general. Do whatever is convenient to you. See how Nirmala Sitaraman

    avoids a tricky question. http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/how-to-clean-up-

    indian-politics/198199?hp 30.30 m)

    15.Give new Definitions:Watch Prakash Javadekar defining entrapment.(8.45m). People havedone this very successfully for 'what is terrorism', 'who is Hindu', 'what is corruption', etc.

    16.Global phenomenon: One naked person will feel not feel ashamed when in company ofpersons with no clothes. So reduce your shame by proving the point that corruption,

    misappropriation etc are global phenomenon.

    example - http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/how-to-clean-up-indian-

    politics/198199?hp (listen from 3.30 m to 4.05 m)

    How to handle interruptions and sharp arguments

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    17.When interrupted by the discussion leader : When you get interrupted by the discussionleader adopt one of the following strategies-

    a. Do not listen to the leader continue with what you want to say. Keep blaring withyour malicious agenda, mudslinging, misinforming etc. Some TV channels resort to

    foul tactic of muting your microphone.

    In that case do either of the following-

    negotiate in advance that this shall not be done or

    take a chance and shoot as much as you can before the microphone is muted.

    b. The leader shall tell you that you are beating about the bush and have not answeredthe question in that case tell the discussion leader that you are coming to the point

    now you can take some more seconds to continue with your agenda and then

    declare that now you are coming to the point. Do it as if you are obliging the

    discussion leader and the audience by doing so and act as if all these irrelevant

    things were necessary to set the background of whatever you are going to say after

    this. It is not necessary to answer the real question even now. Instead you can raisesome more questions and try to divert the debate.

    c. Allege the discussion leader for being party or not being fair. You can directly allegethat you know the inclination of the channel or discussion leader or complain that

    you have constantly been interrupted and have not been given even half the time

    that has been given to your opponents. Once in a programme you can also threaten

    the discussion leader that you will keep mum if nobody is going

    d. Play a victim: You can also play a victim on a particular day when facts and opinionare against you. Try to speak irrelevant things (no need to put extra effort this will

    come automatically since you have no arguments to refute) and very soon you will

    get interrupted. Let it happen sometimes and then start complaining about being

    victim of participants and media persons joining hands, jingoism, non-democratic

    forces, lynch mob mentality, party bashing, etc.

    18.When interrupted by opponent: When you get disturbed by the fellow participant you haveseveral options with you-

    e. Do not stop talking simply bulldoze him/her by keeping talking.f. You can also give him/her very denigrating look and throw mud on him/her by

    reminding that this has been culture of his/her party.

    g. A sophisticated version is to massage the part that you are going to hit heavily.Remind the man/lady about his/her caliber and culture and that it does not suite

    him/her to interrupt in this uncivilized manner. You can even proclaim that you did

    not interrupt when s/he was speaking even though you did. Even some ones says,

    you did, tell that you objected to patently wrong and misleading arguments.

    h. Play a victim: As explained earlier.How to duck or derail a discussion if it is not going your way

    19.Play a game of uproar: It is a popular tactic. Cooperation of at least two opponents isnecessary. Audience simply loves this. Just keep on repeating one phrase to do this. This

    technique may appear outdate but is very effective. It is employed when-

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    You have run out of arguments You feel that your opponent is going to say something which may harm your reputation.

    20. Instigate: Identify certain things in advance that are likely to instigate your opponents.When the arguments seem to go out of hand crack these. It is likely to enrage the participant

    and turn the focus of debate. Your objective should be clear that a scene should be created.

    You will be regarded successful if your opponent throws a tantrum. There is imminent

    danger of you being seen as vicious person but at least you will be able to keep the wolf at

    the door. Manish Tiwari trying to instigate by saying. An elderly gentleman in BJP was in

    hurry to become Prime Minister(19.29)

    21.What to do when a opponent hits on bull's eye: If you feel that the opponent is going to hiton a very pertinent point that is likely to clinch the argument or will be like check-mate you

    can do any of the following things-

    i. Raise your hand: If you want to give an impression of very law abiding debaterimmediately raise your hand as if the argument/fact raised by your opponent has

    flaws and you are ready with counter-arguments. Do this even if you do not have

    any valid points. Am I asking you to commit suicide? No.

    Firstly you can count on compulsions of the discussion leader. S/he may have to give

    chance to someone else before allowing you a rebuttal.

    Secondly, the speaker himself/herself may take long time to complete and by that

    time you can think of some arguments.

    Thirdly, other participants may get enraged by statements of the present speaker

    and may jump in and thus relieve you.

    Fourthly the speaker may get distracted by seeing you look confident against an

    argument that s/he thought would have devastating effects. Moreover there are

    chances that this speaker will finish with some other point and even if you are given

    chance immediately after him/her you can always respond on other points raised by

    him/her. Should I remind you about the strategy adopted by teachers and students

    in a classroom? Teachers in a class room try to prove a point that entire class is not

    well prepared. Whenever they target the question to a student who in their opinion

    is not prepared to answer. They do not want the show to get spoiled by students

    who can perfectly answer the question. Taking advantage of this situation some ill-

    prepared students also raise their hands. The questions are not out-of-the-world soteachers cannot take risk to ask them even when they are suspicious. Why? Because

    this will spoil the stage. The point they are trying to prove that there is need to work

    hard since answers are not known to many. If a mediocre or poor student is able to

    answer it in first attempt the entire purpose of raising question gets defeated. This

    mind-set generally comes to rescue to students who have mastered art of faking

    knowing the answers.

    Remember the point is not whether you are able to offer right rebuttals or not.

    What matters here is public perception. The audience should get an idea that you

    had arguments but were not allowed a fair chance.

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    j. Missing audio: (applicable only when interviewed from remote location) If you are avery safe player or do not have authority to speak on a topic or are completely blank

    on the topic do not reveal your inner feelings. Do not react to an uncomfortable

    argument for which you have no answer. When asked to give your reactions do not

    react at all. Stay as you were before just prior to hearing that sentence. Air time is

    costly so the discussion leader will soon shift to someone else promising to resolve

    technical snag. You may ask me what about the technicians who are with you and

    who are getting the audio link in his/her headphone? Do not worry about his/her

    reactions s/he will not appear on TV. Moreover your headphone may miss audio at

    anytime due to loose contacts.

    22.How can I ward-of an aggressive journalists-Radia tape reminder: Sometimes journalistsleading discussions also start participating in debate (now a day's all of them in fact).

    Gradually they have mastered the art of finding counter arguments and sometimes their

    arguments are sharper than arguments of your opponents. Do not feel that you are on a

    butcher's table and about to be sacrificed. Show some guts and retaliate. From 2010 youhave a new weapon in your armoury. Remind him/her about Radia tapes, tell everyone that

    even journalists as a class are not absolutely above suspicion. This is sure to send the

    journalist reeling back. S/He will go into 'introspective acceptancemode' and will say that

    certainly there are some journalists who are tainted but 'his/her channel does not practice

    that' etc. This will buy you some time and give you upper hand in discussion. This is very

    effective weapon and there are enough chances that the discussion leader will accept that

    the entire political class cannot be treated as being corrupt since one has been identified as

    corrupt, if so even s/he as journalist should be treated as partisan/corrupt since a few have

    been exposed. Now the leader will start treating you as fellow human being and you will

    find way to come back into fighting arena.

    23.How to counter an aggressive citizen- Lay a trap, If anyone raises voice against you he/shecertainly is undermining democracy and does not represent people: If the person raising

    voice against you happens to be citizen immediately discard him as if he is an insect since

    s/he does not represent any one. S/he is not an elected representative. Ask the actor inside

    you to get ready and think that you are sitting next to an insect who stinks of anti-

    democratic values, separatism, naxalism and try to fake such feelings. Don't worry this man

    will never ask you in return that you too do not represent entire country nor even 50%

    voters of your constituency.

    24.Join and clean argument: If any participant who is not a politician can be tackled easily.Challenge him/her by telling that if he/she is so keen to change the system s/he should join

    the system and clean it from inside. Do not worry till date no one has questioned this

    argument. The following counter arguments have not occurred to anyone that-

    a. by the same argument if one wants to clean bureaucracy s/he should first contestCivil Service examination and join the service and try to clean the system from

    inside. By same argument one should join judiciary to change judiciary.

    b. If someone complains against corruption in a ration shop s/he should first getpermission to run a ration shop and then complain.

    25.We followed what predecessors did: You may still be left with one option even when youare finally held responsible for something wrong and have no way of denying it. The

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    frequent changes in governments may come to your rescue. Simply declare that you

    followed policies and decisions of your predecessors. This need not be always true.

    26.Global phenomenon: This point has been explained earlier.27.Learn sophisticated equivalents to abusive words: When faced with a camera your body

    should be trained to turn abusive words into sophisticated words just like body reflexes.

    "My learned friend" is a flexi equivalent that is good replacement for any of the following-

    'son-of-bitch', bastard, idiot, moron, fool, ..... . "X is a good friend of mine" does mean that

    you had close encounters of this kind with this person earlier as well and fear him like a

    cobra and you want to show that you are not hurt by his argument or are now going to hit

    him below the belt (since he has crossed a certain imaginary line).

    Miscellaneous

    28.Do'sc. Be future oriented: Do not allege anyone in particular. Try to allege no one in

    particular: This is a very sound strategy. There are many advantages because

    (i)Your facts may not be right (ii) hitting a specific person will turn this man into a

    guided missile against you and your party (iii) you will be closing doors for this man

    joining your party ones he/she is expelled from his/her party due to charges of

    corruption. If such a corrupt coveted person joins your party then you can defend by

    saying that this person was made a scapegoat by his earlier masters. It will be

    difficult to defend direct assaults if news channels start playing them. If you want to

    cover a great distance in politics learn to say unspecific things. Learn the skill of

    converting specific in to unspecific.

    29.Don'ts : Remember however the terse arguments turn do not do the following-d. Do not reveal closely guarded secrets about each other that have not yet been

    revealed as yet. This is real test of your class. If you are someone who gets easily

    hurt by criticism and start revealing things which should not be revealed you are not

    fit to be in politics. Remember that not only your opponents but your own party will

    not tolerate such irresponsible behaviour. You will not only create a liability for your

    party for sitting over the information but this may also set a chain of disclosures. So

    remember the golden rule of politics, defend, discuss, criticize only what has come

    in public domain and has been established beyond doubt.

    Example :

    i. See how cleverly Nirmala Sitaraman avoids answering Vikram Chandra'squestion about politicians making money for themselves or for their parties?

    around 30.30 m

    ii. The audience is asked to vote about their views whether the MP/MLAs arebrought and sold. 100% audience says yes. Now watch Manish Tiwari

    avoiding question of Vikram:Are MPs bought and sold . He says- Let us not

    generalize an isolated incidence. ( See 25.25m)

    iii. Surprisingly Prakash Javadekar who was leveling charge against Congressalso sings the same song that MPs and MLAs are not bought and sold He

    adds on to say that it is not rule but exception. (27.00m).

    http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/how-to-clean-up-indian-politics/198199?hphttp://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/how-to-clean-up-indian-politics/198199?hphttp://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/how-to-clean-up-indian-politics/198199?hphttp://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/are-our-mps-mlas-bought-and-sold/194769http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/how-to-clean-up-indian-politics/198199?hphttp://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-big-fight/how-to-clean-up-indian-politics/198199?hp
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    e. Do not be fooled by the idea that you have to always oppose other political parties.Show solidarity with other political parties when journalists or citizens raise question

    of wide spread corruption in political parties, culture of sycophancy, misuse of

    discretionary quotas. You may have alleged all your opponents of corruption,

    misusing power or discretionary quotas but if anyone asks you a question whether

    all political parties suffer from maladies immediately and need introspection or

    major reforms, say no immediately in same breath. Try to see the mischievous

    attempts of media and public to derail the democratic process. They may be

    undermining our highly valued democracy. They may be colluding to usurp rights of

    parliament and legislative assemblies. They have this congenital tendency which

    emerges out as soon as they see politicians fighting over issue of corruption.

    Remember that even street dogs while engaged in bloody fight take care not to get

    trampled by vehicles.

    f. Do not make promises to change the system in haste. These promises could be like judicial reforms, electoral reforms, independent investigative agency, greatertransparency, surrendering discretionary quotas, etc. Don't you know that after a

    brief or long period your party will be ruling the State/nation singly or as coalition

    partner and you will need all these privileges then? No one ever cuts the branch that

    one is sitting on.

    g. Do not make any hasty attempts to remove ambiguity in constitution, rules etc. Itssuits all of us not having clearly defined jurisdictions, responsibilities etc. If an issue

    encompasses multiple departments do not make one department responsible for

    start-to-end process. It will be difficult to confuse judiciary, media and public if

    anything goes wrong. If a subject is on concurrent list it will be suitable for both

    State and Centre to shift responsibility on each other. This is especially very useful if

    different political parties are ruling at two ends. If same party is ruling the State and

    Centre than the debate may shifted to systems and mechanisms (fine tuning, making

    effective, revamping, making functional, over hauling radically changing etc).

    h. Do not try to be innovative, use time tested strategies. Resorting to old strategiesmay look stereotyped but they are more accepted than innovative strategies

    adopted by innovative individuals. Stick to copy book style.

    i. Do not listen to inner conscious. This may have hazardous consequences. Rememberthat you are not entrusted with ordinary responsibilities. Your task is not to build a

    nation. Moreover, no one knows how to do that. Perhaps great nations are

    democratic and democracies need political parties. Your inner voice of conscious can

    jeopardize future of your party and thus possibility of building a great democratic

    nation. Party hai to democracy hai, democracy hai to nation hai.

    Dhirendra Devarshi