Ganderbal, Apr 23: The Department of Politics and Governance, Central University of Kashmir (CUK) organised a lecture on “Politics, Virtue and Conflict” by Dr. Nitasha Koul of the University of Westminster, London, at varsity’s Green Campus here on Tuesday.
Introducing the speaker, Dr. Khalid Wasim Hassan, Coordinator of the Department, talked about the relevance of this theme in the contemporary political scenario of the world.
Dr. Nitasha began with introducing the words ‘politics’ and ‘virtue’ and talked about juxtaposition of the two concepts. She emphasized that we need to think about the relation between politics and virtue on a broader level. Citing examples, she pointed out as how right wing extremism is seen “virtuous” by some people. “The right wing groups all over the globe, believe their ideology is based on morality and act on the idea that they are defending something virtuous.”
Giving an empirical example, she said that “in democracies people do not expect virtuous actions from their representatives.”
“The elections have been turned into numerical algorithms, focussed on number of seats and constituencies. Virtue is not expected and there is no surprise at the lack of virtue”, she said.
Apart from students and faculty of the Department, the lecture was attended by the students of other departments, Kashmir University, Ganderbal Degree College.
Dr. Abhiruchi Ojha, Assistant Professor, presented the vote of thanks.
