The Department of
International Relations and History had organized an hour-long talk on Ethics
and Politics: Reflections about Exercising Power on 9 August, 2017 at the
central block seminar hall. The talk was given by the honorary guest of the day
and distinguished Professor Dr Thomas Kesselring from Berne, Switzerland. The
talk was compered by student council representative, Miss Deepa Mithra. The
program was attended by Fr Jose CC, Director, the faculty and students of the
International Relations Department.
Addressing the gathering, Dr
Kesselring talked on the ethical aspects related to exercise of power. He said
that power should be used for helping others, working towards the wellbeing of
the society and the betterment of future. Highlighting power as the foundation
of politics, he compared it to regional habits and said that the ethical use of
power is culturally dependent. According to him, power could induce fear like
that of a lion or beauty like the grace of a peacock. But the absence of power
was graver than a dictatorship. Power should be a convincing and persuasive
strength represented by the State and good qualities of the individuals and
unethical use of power leads to waves on indignation as people consider it a
moral mistake.
He also touched on the
current debate on immigration, which he felt would give rise to right-wing
politics due to tense conflict between population groups. But to a question
from a student on the election of right-wing parties in German nation, he said
that there were only extremely rare cases of right-wing parties winning in
recent memory. He emphasized on the work done by prominent Indian economist, Dr
Amartya Sen in his book Development as Freedom when he talked on the positive
definition of freedom that increases with one’s capacity and knowledge. He
ended the talk by stressing on the contradiction that in power relation,
threats are like promise that are always combined with risk of losing power by
the party which threatens rather than the threatened person.
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