Whenever anyone whom I meet asks me about my ambitions, I gladly take that opportunity to tell them that my ultimate dream is to enter mainstream politics, dedicate myself and selflessly serve the people with good governance as the sole motto. Then, they immediately ask me if my father is a politician or does anyone from my family has a political background. Hearing to such question, I ask them if it is a pre-requisite to enter mainstream politics. Then they ask me if I am sure about my ambitions as they think that it would be close to impossible for anyone to enter and succeed in politics if his/her family doesn’t have any political background. That really makes me feel very bad about our political system. It never brought down my confidence though! But, whenever I hear to such statements, I try to find reasons for them to say so. I think that the live examples that are evident in today’s society are the only reasons because of which people say so. Let’s take a look at few such examples in this blog.
The first and foremost example that one would list when it comes to dynasty politics is Nehru family. After Pandit Nehru, we saw a series of leaders, generation after generation coming from Gandhi’s family and claiming the top position not only in congress but also in Indian Government. India Gandhi, the daughter of Nehru was brought in as a minister after the death of Nehru in 1964 in Shastri’s Government. Then she was made PM in 1966 after the sudden demise of Shastri. It all started from there. That paved the way for dynasty politics. After Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv Gandhi who knew nothing about governance has entered politics in 1980 and became PM in 1984 and then after his death, we all are aware of what happened and how Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have come into the mainstream politics. Four generations from the same family have been ruling India which adopted democracy as its political model. One of my friends always disagrees with me and says that India has not adopted ‘Democracy’ but an innovative model called “Dynastical Democracy” where people would participate in elections but would finally have no choice but to choose the dynasty rule. I am not sure if our politicians have taken inspiration from this family, but today we have a huge number of people in politics with their families have a political background.
Let’s see a set of leaders around us whose fathers are political bigwigs. Rahul Gandhi, the son of former Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, the son of former cabinet minister Rajesh Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia the son of Madhav Rao Scindia, Deepinder Singh Hooda son of Haryana CM Bhoopinder Singh Hooda, Jitin Prasada son of Jitendra Prasada who was the advisor to two of the congress PMs, Milind Deora the son of Murali Deora who is the current petroleum minister. These are a bunch of political heirs whom the congress claims as their younger generation of leaders. We keep hearing Jayanti Natarajan, the Spokesperson of Congress party claiming that congress is the only party which has a younger generation of leaders. I think people are not all surprised by her claim because it’s not only now that the congress has a younger generation of leaders but it always had in the past and it will always have in the future as they have this ever green mechanism of grooming leaders in their party.
By the way, dynasty politics are not confined to congress alone though it is in this party this phenomenon is highly prevalent. To some extent, it’s present even in BJP which is dead opposed to dynasty politics. Dushyant Singh the son of Vasundara Raje Scindia, Mavendra Singh the son of Jaswant Singh and Varun Gandhi the son of Menaka Gandhi are few BJP leaders who have a political background. But, the primary difference between congress and the BJP as far as this phenomenon is concerned is that the dynasty politics is the primary means for congress to find leaders while it is ground level experience that matters for BJP. BJP doesn’t project people like Manavendra Singh as their future leader while the congress, either for PM or CM post, it does that very well without any kind of hesitation.
This phenomenon is observed across parties. But the only party that i can figure out that is against such politics both in principle and in practice is Lok satha in Andhra. Lok Satha said its against dynasty politics and it contested in Khairatabad bypoll where son of P Janardhan Reddy, P VishuVardhan Reddy has contested after his father's unfortunate death. We don't find many such exceptions today. Some of the well known dynasty politicians from non congress and non BJP are Ajit Singh the son of former PM Charan Singh, Ajay Singh the son of another former PM V P Singh, Chandra Babu Naidu son in law of NTR, Purandeshwari the daughter of NTR, Udhav Thakarey the son of Bal Thakarey, Neveen Patnaik the son of Biju patnaik. Daya Nidhi Maram, the son of Murasoli Maran, Stalin son of Karunanidhi, Kumaraswamy the son of Deve Gowda. I remember reading an article recently in a telugu newspaper which talks about a minister in AP Govt whose wife is an MP. Apart from having an MLA and MP in his family, he wants an extra MLA ticket for his elder sister and an MLA ticket for his son in law and MP ticket for his younger brother. How weird politics have become? What a great disrespect to the people of India! Does he think that no one in his district is capable of becoming a public leader? It looks as if politics and governance have become a kind of personal property for politicians to share to their children.
Nasty dynasty politics not only discourages people with excellent leadership qualities to enter politics but it also hampers the country’s progress and change the fate of every common man as it allows incapable people to govern the country. Leaders like L.B.Shastri, Sardar Patel, P V Narsimha Rao, Vajpayee, etc. without any kind of family background have done an excellent service to this country. So, let’s not emotionally get biased to caste our vote for our favorite leader’s son unless he proves himself of having a good understanding of the challenges in the society and is capable of providing good governance. Merits and capabilities should be the criteria and not the family background. One should adopt “Nation comes first” attitude and not “Family comes first” to make our Nation stand at the forefront of the world countries.
Jai Hind
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8 comments:
I think this is a world wide phenomenon not only in politics. Ppl frm the "dynasties" are the best educated ones inspite of their calibre. Hardward, Cambridge, oxford and MIT grads. The mistake is not with the politics, but it is with the lack of strong ppl who are ambitious enough to enter into mainstream politics and their zeal for social service, than for "money & Power". Society lacks leaders and thats why power surnames are promoted. Its not about the family again. Its about the dedication of the person again. He might create wonders, given his ease of entering politics; he can exploit it for a good cause, rather than for power.
u r right.gud luck for ur future endeavours
Very true..but i beg to differ on some points. I think all of our problems in politics are interconnected. Lets talk about them gradually
1) Financial muscle plays a major role in our political system and offsprings of political leaders are blessed with fortunes, thanks to corruption.
2) OPPORTUNITY - Being born into a political family has its inherent advantages. They make things easier for the offsprings as their families already have a foothold. This isn't something restricted to India alone. George W Bush is the son of a former president of United States !
While we cannot really help about the opportunity factor, we should hope for a change in the conviction of voters and a major revamp in the system to restrict candidates' spending.
I am not against entry of someone who has a family background but is capable and know what a common man needs.
One might have an opportunity for an easy entry into politics or one might have an access to all kinds of resources because of his background but he/she needs to have a ground level understanding of the society. Otherwise, society would suffer for their incapable leadership. We had many such examples. So, for this there needs a thinking and action both from parties as well as from people like you and me.....
1. People shouldn't blindly vote for someone because he is the son of some famous leader. People should also see if he is capable and he has ground level understanding.
2. Parties also shouldn't give tickets on basis of dynasty. They should issue tickets on basis of ground level experience, merits and capability.
Both are important for a successful democracy and for its fruits to reach people.
Agree with you.
One thing we lack is a means to propagate awareness among rural India which has majority share in number of votes. Even if we have capable and eligible people who is not famous and does not have public image.
One challenge anyone who wants to enter main stream politics is to find a effective means to propagate awareness among the rural India and tell them the value of their vote. I hope JP does that and gives opportunities to educated youth who want to be a part of the system and make if efficient.
Good luck.
Of all the things, running state cant be a family business... That totally defies the idea of democracy...
I have nothing against Rajiv Gandhi, but how does he qualify for the top seat with delta knowledge on the Indian situation..
and a ton of other examples..
But as us said... dont get disheartened.. You can be the change you wanted to see in this world
Rakee.. its an unfortunate situation truely. I would like to pont few things in the blog. Its too early to conclude that loksatta is not for the dynasty politics just based on one khairtabad issue. Also, i find three major reasons for this:
1. Risk aversion by those who have leadership skills.
2. People tend to resist change
3. Most unfortunately in india atleast we look at politics as a profession of business oppurtunity while it is not.
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