July 15, 2014

Two Sides of Popular Argument of a Politician : "If I am convicted in court, I'll quit"

The politicians and other people in public life often issue statements that "If allegations are true, prove it in court. If I am convicted by court, I'll quit."


This is a weak argument for two reasons:

1) Once a person is convicted, he has no options. He is taken into custody. He is forced to quit. So the argument that "If I'll be convicted, I will quit" is an argument which has no weight.

2) "If I am convicted in a court of law"... This rider implies that it will take about 5 years or more to finally decide a case. "So till then I am not going to quit even if I may be guilty".

In my view both these argument does befit a person holding high public office.

Arguments on behalf of politician

1) In politics, one view to remove opponent from election is to file false cases on rape. There are people who specialise in filing false cases. They supply complainant, they supply witnesses to fixed targeted persons. Politicians need protection against such person. They need not be troubled unless find guilty.

2) Politician is also a citizen. Every one else is treated as innocent until proved guilty in court. Politicians should be protected equally.


Haresh Raichura
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