Political Diary

New Delhi, 7 February 2017

Our New Zamindars

MERA FEUDAL INDIA!

By Poonam I Kaushish

In the ongoing electoral dance for the throne in five States the flavour is pedigree. Be it Ulta Pulta Pradesh, where politics is khandaani business, Punjab where Badals have ‘clouded’ rajniti, Goa and Manipur where the Congress hails the rising sons and Uttarakhand where Hindutva touts familial love. Darlings it’s all about pedigree and invoking the dynastic Gods to reap rich political dividends. A fool-proof way for India’s polity to go to the dogs!

Indeed, if democracy rests on the one-man-one vote principle, elections are all about one family and as many tickets as you can wangle norm.  The Congress offers Nehru-Gandhi’s Gen Next, the BJP sways to the lilting tune of Betas, Betis and Bandhu. Forgetting that denouncing dynastic politics and taking a dig at Congress’s “First Family” was par for the course till yesterday.

Today it jaaps parivar dharam.  Shockingly, the BJP has given tickets to 17 sons and daughters out of the 371 doled out in UP. The line up is impressive. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s son as also slain Cabinet Minister Brahm Dutt Dwivedi, Party veteran Lalji Tandon’s, MP Brij Bhusan Sharan Singh and BSP turncoat Swami Prasad Maurya’s ladlas and ex-Prime Minister Shastri and former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh’s grandsons. In Uttarakhand it plums for ex Congress Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son.

What the sons can do the daughters do better. Former Minister Prem Lata Katiyar and MP Hukum Singh’s betis debut in UP and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Khanduri’s in the State.  So much for claiming to run the Party by “samvidhan-vaad”, not “parivaarvaad”. Sic.

The Congress which owes its existence to the Nehru-Gandhi Khandaan has fielded ex-Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Haryana MLA’s sons alongside five time MLA Akhilesh Singh’s daughter in UP, Manipur Chief Minister Ibobi Singh and ex Goa Chief Minister Rane’s sons.

The Samajwadi has its own wagon of 21 dynasts, including patriarch Mulayam Singh’s Chhoti Bahu Aparna and Azam Khan’s son and lest we forget, Chacha Shivpal. Not to be left behind BSP’s Mayawati too believes in Bhai-Bahen sambhand and tickets have been freely distributed to them et al.

The regional satraps make no bones about being family enterprises. Be it Lalu-Rabri’s RJD which stands for Pati, Patni aur Parivar, Badal’s Akali Dal, Deve Gowda’s JD(S), Chautala’s INLD, Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Farooq Abdullah’s NC should really be known as Pita-Putra Party. And Sharad Pawar’s  NCP as Pita-Putri Party and Mufti’s PDP Main Hoon Na. Underscoring as never before that not only is our political system weak, worse it is dominated by microcosmic monarchies comprising individuals rather than strong political institutions.

Ajit Singh’s RLD and Paswan’s LJP keeping in their style believe in Putra Prem!A no-holds barred gharelu nautanki which has surpassed the Comedy Nights with Kapil and his Babaji ka thoolu TRP rating.  Indeed, India’s son’ is shining, and, how! Certainly, the dadagiri of dynastic politics is alive and kicking.

All convinced that ideology-based democracy comes after hereditary feudalism, parroting the same hackneyed diatribe.  Only our dynasty can provide a government of the people, by the people and for the people.  Sprinkled liberally with loads of desh bhakti and balidaan.

Hoping that a billion plus vassals will be mesmerized by the dynastic Gods to shower their choicest blessing. What is material is not whether the candidates are deserving but that they are “made deserving”, by virtue of the hereditary factor. Whereby, better qualified, sincere and deserving candidates and committed Party workers lose out to sons and daughters who may lack similar intent and competence.  Parties, after all, are only a larger extension of the families. 

Modern day geneticists could learn a lesson or two from our netagan who are past masters in this science.  It’s all in the genes, remember. It’s all about bhaichara.  Quipped a leader, “India is a democracy of dynasties, for dynasties and by dynasties.”

Questionably, what is about dynasty’s that attract people to it? One, given that a majority of our electorate is angootha chaap, people relate to a neta more than the Party. The election of a ‘Party defector’ bears this out. Two, what’s wrong in capitalizing on the family brand and provide a ready field to the santaan to continue the legacy?

Sadly, politics has degenerated to I, me, and myself and is bereft of ideology. Whereby the voters’ mantra is all that the yuppies, puppies and the bahus are tutored on.  The “jenaioo” of father and son is the same.  Charity begins at home as dictated by the political guru.  Groomed to don the precious family heirloom where ends alone matter, not the means, aish karo.

Bluntly, for a democratic country, India’s politics is remarkably familial whereby it has become a systemic phenomenon shamelessly feudal in our outlook and jo hokum thought process. Wherein, families, even extended ones, invoke the dynastic Gods. Triggering off a process wherein sons and daughters and even sons-in-law becoming an integral part of statecraft – leading to new rules, guidelines and extra-Constitutional centres of power.

Scandalously, at least 29 per cent of the current Indian Parliament consists of hereditary MPs (HMPS), read fathers, mothers, siblings, husbands, wives, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins or in-laws – preceded them in politics. Another 5 per cent have family members either enter politics simultaneously, or follow them… 34 per cent of Parliamentarians with family ties are at any time and at any Government level. Less said the better of “hyper-hereditary” (MPs with multiple family members spreading in several directions lodged in the dark under-belly of Indian Polity)

Unsurprisingly, every MP in the Lok Sabha under the age of 30 has in effect inherited a seat, and more than two-thirds of the 66 MPs aged 40 or under are HMPS and over two-thirds of the 59 women MPs also fall in the family politics category.

Consequently, in a milieu wherein our netagan have made their ‘issues’ the only rajnitik issue, ideology has been cast aside.  Underscoring how unrepresentative our representative Parliamentary system has become, as power gets increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few families.

What next?  Parties need to realize that “dynasty” is a sword that cuts both ways. The feudal factor can be a liability than an asset. Plainly, as the aam janata’s awareness of their rights increases, it would be politically prudent to hoot for democracy over dynasty.

Logically, if a Party’s focus is the future of the leader’s progeny, how can it efficiently fulfill the mundane tasks of administration when in power, or provide a credible Opposition when out of power? If not stopped now, the day will come when Parliament that houses the aspirations and hopes of a billion plus aam aadmis, will becomes the most coveted Power Corporation exclusively meant and run by highly-pedigreed families.

Clearly, if this trend of hereditary politics continues, a day will dawn when most MPs and MLAs would be there by heredity alone. Pushing the nation back to square one: Before the freedom struggle, ruled by a hereditary monarch and assorted Indian princelings. Sounding the death-knell of our polity. 

Should we say goodbye to democracy? And let our netas serenade 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 our new zamindars! ---INFA       

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)