Dynastic politics is deep rooted

 

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

Dynasty and politics have gradually become natural bedfellows in the country. This is what we have seen in the last few years. Rahul Gandhi’s rise to the Number two slot in the Congress is the natural process of the malaise which has been set into motion by not only his party but a host of other regional parties in the country.

Except perhaps a handful of regional players, none of the other parties in the country can afford to criticise the rise of Rahul as they too are beset with the problem of dynastic politics and just cannot look beyond the sons of the main leaders. If you traverse the length of the country from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari, you will find a series of dynastic leaders at the helm of either governance or the regional parties. 

Congress is merely the symptom of the disease which runs deep, across political divide and ideology. None of these regional parties have any system in which leadership quality is scrutinized or the leader is chosen from a talent pool which is wide and deep. It is only taking birth in the right family which determines political fate.

In the northern most state of the country—Jammu and Kashmir—it is the father-son duo of Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar who are in control. One is a Union Minister and the other is the chief minister. The chief minister’s grandfather Sheikh Abdullah was the one who made a mark with his leadership qualities, something which continues to be milked by the father-son duo.

Cross over to Punjab. Here, the father-son duo of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal has practically monopolized the entire political space of the Akali Dal. While the father is the chief minister of the state, the son is the Deputy Chief Minister and also the President of the Akali Dal. The older generation of the Akalis has been gradually marginalized and beyond the two, there is hardly any leadership except perhaps Bikram Majithia, brother-in-law of the junior Badal. Nephew of the chief minister, Manpreet Badal was important for a while but when he fell out in the succession plan of the senior Badal, he revolted and formed his own party. “A son is important, not a nephew,” says the saying in the Akali Dal.

Punjab’s neighbor Haryana isn’t any different. Here, the father-son duo of Om Prakash Chautala and Ajay Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal has been convicted for ten years each for their role in the JBT scam. With hardly any line of leadership in the party, the mantle has now fallen on another son of the jailed leader and former chief minister, Abhey Chautala. It was former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal, the father of O P Chautala who started this dynastic tradition which continues in the party without any hitch. State Congress is no different, while Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the chief minister of the state for the last over 8 years, his son Deepinder is being groomed and is presently the MP from Rohtak. The third party in the state – Haryana Janhit Congress also boasts of dynastic politics with Kuldeep Bishnoi taking over the reins of his party after the demise of Chaudhary Bhajan Lal, a former chief minister of the state.

Haryana has two immediate neighbours – Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In the hill state of Himachal, Prem Kumar Dhumal is the Leader of Opposition and was the chief minister till December 2012. His son Anurag Thakur is an MP from Hamirpur and in the BJP, this is a rare occurrence. There is hardly any other example in the BJP where both father and son have made it big into politics. Virbhadra Singh became the chief minister of the state in December 2012 and is clear that his son Vikramaditya Singh is being groomed now. As the son is only 23-year old, he did not contest but the moment he is 25, the junior Singh could well be either in the state Assembly or Parliament. Vikramaditya was elected as the Indian Youth Congress President of the state under direct elections, a scheme conceptualized by Rahul Gandhi. It is a different matter that the election was set aside after issues of rigging and bogus membership came to limelight.

In Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party remains the only party which is bereft of dynastic politics. Kanshi Ram started the party and never encouraged any family member. Instead, the leadership mantle fell on Mayawati who remained single and can rightfully take a swipe at dynastic politics of her arch rival in the state—Samajwadi Party. The entire family of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is in politics with son Akhilesh as the chief minister and daughter-in-law Dimple as an MP. Then there are brothers and nephews, all in prominent positions in the party and government. It seems there is no talent beyond the family for the Yadav patriarch.

Dynastic politics came to Uttarakhand too but the voters here rejected attempts to foist Saket, the son of chief minister Vijay Bahuguna from Tehri constituency in a bye-election. The present chief minister himself is the son of former UP chief minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna though he never benefitted from this politically.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) in Bihar has not encouraged his son Nishant in politics but his rival Lalu Prasad made his wife Rabri Devi the chief minister after he was jailed.

West Bengal is relatively free from dynastic politics. With Mamata Banerjee at the helm, Trinamool Congress can rightfully take a swipe at Congress and Rahul Gandhi. Her main opponents in the state, CPI(M) too does not have any tradition of son taking over the mantle from father. Though, Congress still believes in the same tradition in the state as Abhijit Mukherjee fought a bye-election and won narrowly from Jangipur, the seat vacated by his father Pranab Mukherjee when he became the President of the country. 

In Odisha, you have Navin Pattnaik as chief minister who benefitted from the legacy of his father Biju Pattnaik. In Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Mohan Reddy sought the chair of chief minister as a matter of right after the death of his father YSR Reddy. He was denied the post by the Congress leadership, leading to revolt and formation of a separate regional party. The other party in the state TDP too has shades of dynastic politics though for a change it was the son-in-law of NT Rama Rao, Chandra Babu Naidu who inherited or rather snatched the political legacy in a Machiavellian move almost two decades ago.

Like the Akali Dal in Punjab, Shiv Sena of Maharashtra also saw the rejection of the claims of the nephew in favour of the son. The late party supremo Bal Thakre chose his son Uddhav over nephew Raj to continue the dynastic tradition. Now Uddhav has roped in his son Aditya to groom his as a leader. NCP too is not bereft of this as both the daughter and nephew of Union Minister Sharad Pawar are practically the Number 2 and 3 of the party. In Tamil Nadu, it is the extended family of M Karunanidhi which holds forte as the vanguard of dynastic politics. 

So wherever you look, you see dynastic politics all around. Except perhaps BJP and the Left parties, the political outfits have limited talent pool when it comes to leadership. Congress and Rahul Gandhi are only the symptoms of the malaise which runs deep. “Don’t throw stones when you live in a glass house,” a Congress leader said on the criticism after Rahul was made the party Vice President. (January 28, 2013)