"Politics" is not a DIRTY word : Nitish Kumar

Ceratinly , POLITICS is not a dirty word , Its a word to rule the society but unfortunetly it is made DIRTY by PEOPLE who has been given opportunities to lead the SOCIETY . In post world war II , every nation is affected with DIRTY POLITICs to rule the Society . Every nation has given enough power to elected representatives of PEOPLE . I hope with NITISH word , new generation will not hesitate to take active participation in POLITICs , MEDIA can play a lead role to awake PEOPLE , but even MEDIA is also a part making DIRTY the POLITICs .

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday asserted that students must take part in politics to strengthen the democratic set-up of the country. "Had there been a ban on students' participation in politics, I would not have become a chief minister today," Nitish quipped. Inaugurating the birth centenary celebrations of renowned historian K K Datta at Darbhanga House of Patna University here, Nitish said that steps should be initiated to hold elections to the university students' union at the earliest to enable the students avail of their democratic rights. Elections to students' unions in the state have not been held for the last two decades. The chief minister regretted that in the absence of democratically elected unions, many genuine grievances of students remained unredressed. Earlier, students used to agitate for change of establishment or political set-up or for wider reforms in education, but the present-day student agitation remains invariably confined to admission in colleges and university departments. Recalling his student days, Nitish reminisced how he along with other students of the erstwhile Bihar College of Engineering (now NIT, Patna) had launched an agitation for 74 days and ultimately succeeded in getting their demands fulfilled by the then Patna University vice chancellor Sachin Dutt. Those days, students' union used to invite top political leaders and academicians on the campus and learnt many things from them, he said. "Everything cannot be learnt in classrooms. Students must be exposed to public meetings, seminars and conferences for learning things not taught in classrooms," he said and observed that politics should not be treated as a dirty word. Rather, it should be treated sacrosanct since healthy politics alone could preserve and promote democratic values, he added. Referring to some recent comments on reservations in panchayat elections, Nitish admitted that though the decision was politically motivated, there was no harm in it. No government decision in a democratic set-up can be apolitical, he remarked.

RANJAN RITURAJ SINH