The Indian Politics of Dynasties

If we analyze Indian political spectrum after independence, we find it is greatly riddled with dynastic politics. After achieving independence, India became a democracy, a republic where all its citizens are equal and nobody is greater or smaller than none. However, this democratic spirit was never preserved and allowed in true sense to flourish in Independent India by the sheer hunger and lust for power, money and other perks coming free with it. The brilliant example of the dynastic politics is the Nehru Gandhi family, the so called but wrongly called, the first family of the nation.  In democratic India, there is none as the first family or the last family as every individual and every family is equal in front of law and Indian Constitution. No doubt, Nehru & Indira Gandhi had greatly contributed in evolving India as a nation but the legacy also has adversely affected rise of true inner party democracy and in the governments too. Nehru, Indira, Rajiv, Sonia, Rahul and even Priyanka appearing on the scene occasionally, all belong to the family and all enjoyed a solid grip over  their party as well as their governments. Few exceptions cannot prove otherwise as everybody knows what happened to Late Sitaram Kesri who was party president for a brief period. The well crafted arrangement of dynastic politics suits the rest of members of the Congress party as they expect to enjoy power when glued to the family, scattered otherwise they consider themselves incapable to survive.

The perpetual dynastic politics of the Nehru-Gandhi family has induced the similar trend in other political parties too. The Yadavs of Samajwadi party in Uttar Pradesh, another Yadavs of Rashtriya Janta Dal in Bihar, Badals of Akali Dal in Punjab, Pawar-Sule of NCP in Maharashtra, Thackerays of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Karunanidhi family in Tamilnadu and Abdullah & Muftis  in Jammu & Kashmir are some of the other examples of dynastic politics. These examples are at bigger scales but there are numerous dynastic politics at local levels where preference in seat allocation and other matters is given to the members of dynasties. In BJP, this phenomenon is not visible very much at national level with few exceptions, (though incomparable with the Nehru Gandhi dynasty) like Anurag Thakur, being the son of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Varun Gandhi, the son of Maneka Gandhi, Poonam Mahajan, the daughter of late Pramod Mahajan, Jayant Sinha, son of former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and others at state and local levels. The NDA’s two Prime Ministers Atal Behari Bajpai and Narendra Modi do not belong to any family and similarly, the present and previous BJP party presidents too do not have legacies of any family. Hence, BJP appears to be much better placed as a Democratic Party with much lesser dynastic legacies.

In a democracy, the problem is not with the dynastic politics if the merit is given due weightage in party functions and seat allocations. A mere dynastic criterion is the main problem in democracy as merit gets suppressed and incompetency rules. As a result, most of the political parties do not observe internal democracy and do not conduct internal democratic elections. Consequently, the rule of dynasties becomes a perpetually accepted norms and nobody within the party dare to challenge the families. This tendency accelerates the culture of sycophancy and it does not allow members to raise their genuine concerns against the family high commands. The democracy loses its true meaning and only the master and slave relationship exists in the party functioning.

The dynastic politics is a self preserving effort by the families. The greed of power and wealth becomes the main focus of the parties whereas the development of nation and its people takes a back seat. Consequently, the sixty five years of dynastic politics has not allowed a true democracy to evolve in India.  Sycophancy has become the order of the day. The rule of British Empire has been replaced by the first, second and likes of third, fourth families and common man is left looking towards Mai-Baap governments. The nation has suffered and as a consequence, the system has not allowed the people to become self reliant but made them habitual to beg for freebies. This must change and change without further delays else the poison of dynastic politics will kill the democracy.

The people of India must remember that nobody is greater than the Nation, not even Gandhis, Modis, Yadavs and the rests.