Political Diary

New Delhi, 26 September 2015

Hail My Feudal India

POLITICS IS PARIVAR BUSINESS!

By Poonam I Kaushish

Come to Bihar, the place where the son always shines! Indeed this could well be the slogan of all Parties in the ongoing pre-polls circus wherein the family reins supreme.  Darlings, a no-holds-barred dehati gharelu nanutanki with all merrily banking on the right pedigree to ensure a continuing lineage.  Clearly, dynasty is the flavour of this battle royale. A fool-proof way for India’s polity to go to the dogs!

See how the regional satraps have reduced their Parties to private limited companies read my parivar with their aankhon ke tare projected as the icing on the cake. You name the leader and some relative is in the poll fray. Trust RJD chieftain Lalu who has showered his two laadlas (sons) with Assembly tickets. Ditto is the case with senior colleagues Prabhunath Singh and Taslimuddin who too have ensured a berth for their progenies.  Succinctly, Putra Prem/

The JD(U) and Congress too have bestowed favours on other MLAs’ Bhai, Bahen,Biwi and Bahu etc. Not to be left behind, the BJP has followed suit by distributing tickets to sons of senior leaders CP Thakur, Choubey and Ganga Prasad, while the LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan not satisfied by making his ‘Chirag’ MP and Party President has fielded his brother, nephew and Bandhu for the Assembly.

But it is not a happy family scene all the way. Paswan’s and HUM’s Manjhi’s sons-in-law are upset for having been denied tickets and are threatening to join their Sasurji’s rivals. Rubbing salt to their wounds, the sons have been accommodated.

Sadly, all this is done at the expense of better and deserving candidates.  Most who lost out in the ticket race continue to remain in the fray as rebel independents thereby creating confusion in the rank and file.  Leading to a situation where local Party leaders are pitted against each other. This is causing rifts, even fist flights, during the selection of the party candidates.  All Parties have their share of black eyes.

Undeniably, this is today’s political culture: Of a shameless feudal India and Jo hukum thought process. Whereby, most elected leaders prefer to function in the style of old feudal lords. Party tickets are distributed not on the basis of merit, but feudal laws and connections as families, even extended ones, invoke the dynastic Gods! It’s about as many tickets as one can wangle norm.

Arguably, if Indian democracy rests on the one-man-one vote principle and dynasty is the antithesis of electoral politics, the obverse holds true. What is material is not whether the candidates are deserving, but that they are “made deserving” by virtue of the hereditary factor.

Forget pop talk or shop talk, the genes mantra is all that the yuppies, puppies and the bahus are tutored on.  The “jenahoo” of father and son is the same.  Charity begins at home.  As dictated by the political guru.  Groomed to don the mantle ---- a precious family heirloom.

Some tickle the electorate’s palate with charisma, some with music sprinkled liberally with loads of desh bhakti and balidaan. Others with muscle.  Hoping that their vassals would be mesmerized to shower their choicest blessing. 

Justifying political inheritance by asserting, “Is it not normal for the offspring of mice to dig burrows? Children of political parents will know politics best”' he observed. Perhaps the best way to explain a rat race! It is another matter that the dynasty is patterned on the lines of mafias. The “godfather” who controls not only his family but a city state and helps run the country!

Most distressingly, the original promoter of this pedigree culture is none other than India’s GOP, the Congress.  Nehru set the ball rolling and calculatedly laid the foundation of dynastic rule.  He groomed daughter Indira, who in turn promoted Sanjay then Rajiv, followed bahu Sonia and now Yuvraj Rahul.

Recall, only Sardar Patel put his foot down firmly – as in the case of Mahatma Gandhi.  After that almost all Prime Ministers and Chief Minister have calculatedly promoted their wards.  From Kairon to Karunanidhi, Pant to Parmar, Devi Lal to Bhajan Lal, Charan Singh to Arjun Singh to Narasimha Rao --- Deva Gowda, a never ending lineage

Besides, it also boasts of its Pilots, Chidambaram, Dikshit, Deora, Surejawala, Gogia, daughters of Bahuguna, Jagjivan Ram,  Dinesh Singh and grandson of late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Alongside wives like Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who piggy back on their husbands’ clout etc.

Even the much-touted and much-disciplined BJP has chosen to get ‘Congress-ised’. A smattering of sons forms the bedrock as MP’s or MLA’s. Rajnath Singh, Maneka Gandhi, Yashwant Sinha, Vasundhara Raje, Dhumal, Samajwadi’s Mulayam Singh whose son Akhilesh rules UP and brother is a Minister.

Ditto in Punjab where Chief Minister Badal’s son Sukhbir is his Deputy and daughter-in-law a Union Minister, in the South there is DMK Kurananidhi’s squabbling two betas and beti, Shiv Sena’s Udhav Thackeray etc all believe their progenies know the ABC of rajneeti better than anyone else. Indeed it has reached such absurd proportions whereby if a Minister dies give his place to the widow, son or daughter.

It is show-time for the chhoras (son and grandson) of Chautala. Ensconced in his customised Mercedes Benz the grandson asserts, “Arre bhai, people say that the sons and the father have all the say in governance. I ask you, if in our rule we don't have a say who will?"

What should one say of the son rise’ and daughter ascent in J&K, which has two families opposing each other. The father-son Abdullah’s --- Farooq and Omar alongside father-daughter Mufti’s ---- Mohammed Sayeed and Mehbooba.

All parroting the same hackneyed diatribe. Only our dynasty can provide a Government of the people, by the people and for the people.  Really? You could have fooled me.

Alas, Parliamentary democracy is fast reaching its nadir wherein sons and daughters are becoming an integral part of statecraft leading to new rules, guidelines and extra-Constitutional centres of power. Confirming that only the outward trappings are democratic --- naam ke waste. 

Indeed the day is not far when a leader’s qualifications would read: He must be a “freedom fighter’s” grandson or a politician’s son.  Those blessed with only daughters, no problem all Parties are “fair” minded.”  And to maintain “peace” in the house, there could even be a toss-up between the wife and bahu. 

After all, aren’t parties only a larger extension of the families?  Besides, to keep good sambandh even sambandhis will do! Undoubtedly, a highly disturbing trend fraught with grave consequences.

What next?  Now that the top leaders have made their own ‘issues’ the only election issue ideology, once the cementing factor, has been cast aside.  True in the long run short-term feudal gains could sound the death-knell of the Indian polity.  But our netagan seem to care two hoots as mili bhagats rules the roost. 

All busy serenading each other with “Let’s move ahead and take a stand, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand”.  If the shoulder and hand are of the feudal brat pack – the new rajas and ranis, all the better.  Hail the rising family --- and my feudal India.--INFA  

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)