One cannot be a successful politician if one sticks to his ideals and convictions. If a politician is rigid and inflexible in his thoughts and approach, he will be isolated from the masses. Politics knows no code of conduct or ethics. If there is any field in which ends justify the means, politics is certainly one of them. One who is very conscious of the promises made on various occasions to the voters cannot progress in politics as one cannot fulfill many of the promises that are made and should be prepared to compromise on this score. True, to some extent politicians do fulfill some of the promises made. But by and large most of the promises like the assurances in the manifestos are ignored both by the masses and the politicians themselves with new promises yielding place to new. One cannot afford to take a firm stand on any issue in politics. The politician should be flexible enough to accommodate new thoughts, ideas and suggestions as the emerging situations demands. After all, politics is the art of compromise.