|
Faultline India: Bloodlines
Gian Inder Singh
 As someone put
it pithily in Punjab, the ruling Akali Dal top leadership can be
described in a sweet family language: Daddy Ji, Beta Ji, Bahu Ji,
Jawayee Ji, Beta Ji de Saala Sahib, Bhaneva (nephew) ji.
Mummy Ji has
been keeping herself very busy in inspiring everyone to do langar
sewa, district by district style.
If Parkash Singh
Badal was being seen as indulging in blatantism when he made his son
Sukhbir Singh Badal the Akali Dal president and then the Deputy
Chief Minister, now he will be only someone who happened to think of
the bright idea first.
His good friend
down South, K Karunanidhi, the CM of Tamil Nadu, has made his son M
K Stalin the Deputy Chief Minister, and there is no doubt that
Stalin will soon be taking over as the President of the DMK too.
Karunanidhi has already prepared enough grounds by saying his health
no more allows it.
The clan is back
in Indian politics, and with a vengeance. But hey! when did it even
go away at all? Haven't we seen the Nehru-Gandhis condemned to rule
India?
| |
Being a
doctor or an engineer is not the same as being a politician. A
doctor can send his son to a medicine school and then hand him
over his practice, but politicians are supposed to emerge from
among the people, not spring forth from the loins of established
politicians. |
And prey! What's
wrong with it? "If a doctor's son becomes a doctor, an engineer's
son becomes an engineer, what is wrong with a politician's son
becoming a politician?" When Parkash Singh Badal had asked this
question, he thought he has scored a goal over anyone crying about
democratic norms.
But seriously,
what's wrong with the sons and daughters and nephews rising in
politics. Well, to start with: Every thing. Every damn thing, if it
is still not clear to anyone. Family style of doing politics makes
it family business. This business, the business of the policies of
the, for the, by the people, becomes of the, by the, and yes, for
the, Family. This is worse than feudalism. The blood that runs in
the veins of the rulers then never mingles with the blood that runs
in the veins if the ruled.
The faultline
becomes the bloodline.
Now, this Family
Drama was played out on the national scale, and in full view of the
global and national community with Manmohan Singh taking 12 days to
fix his cabinet, and a few more to distribute portfolios. For
someone who wanted to tackle problems as big as the economic crisis
in the first 100 days, spending 10 per cent of that time in cabinet
formation was rather a luxury.
 But what
concerns delayed it? Oh, nothing more than family concerns. Just put
your finger on the list of ministers and you would have touched a
raw nerve of Indian politics, or a bloodline.
India has got
its youngest minister in Agatha Sangma. Not many have forgotten how
her father, P A Sangma, had parted company with Sonia Gandhi over
her Italian origins. "Now, everything is forgotten," the young
daughter beamed. A ministry often helps memories to fade.
|
A new argument has been marshaled. “Kin can be given tickets,
but it is the people who elect them.” That is truly wonderful,
except that it is also the argument about all criminals in
politics. After all, they come to Parliament only after the
people elect them. |
|
M.K.Azhagiri is
the son of M. Karunanidhi. His daughter also wanted to become a
minister, and was in the race till the last minute. Dayanidhi Maran
is also a close relative of M. Karunanidhi. (He is also the son of
Murasoli Maran, a minister in A.B.Vajpayee’s government.)
Oh yes, from
Punjab, Preneet Kaur is also a minister now. Her prowess to deal
with the External Affairs ministry is not very well known, but what
is known is the fact that she is the wife of Amarinder Singh.
Should we go
faster? Okay, please keep ticking. From the Abdullah dynasty of
Sheikh Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah is the Union Minister and his son
Omar is now Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister. Farooq's son-in-law
Sachin Pilot is also a Union Minister. So you have a son-in-law,
father-in-law pair in the Indian ministry, a first. By the way,
Sachin too has a bloodline entry into politics. He is the son of
late Union Minister Rajesh Pilot.
Prithviraj
Chavan is from a well-known Maharashtra political family. Salman
Khurshid’s father was a minister in Indira Gandhi’s government.
Haryana's Selja Kumari is former Union Minister Choudhary Dalbir
Singh's daughter.
G.K.Vasan is the
son of G.K.Moopanar.
Delhi's
Ajay Maken is the nephew of noted
Delhi leader,
the late Lalit Maken. Bharatsinh Solanki is the son of former
External Affairs Minister Madhavsinh Solanki. D.Purandeshwari is
N.T. Rama Rao’s daughter.
Tushar Choudhary
is the son of the former Gujarat Chief Minister Amarsinh Choudhary.
Jyotiraditya Scindia is the son of Madhavrao Scindia. Jitin Prasada
is the son of Jitendra Prasada.R.P.N.Singh is the son of former
Union Minister C.P.N. Singh. Prateek Patil is the grandson of former
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vasantdada Patil.
D. Napoleon is
the nephew of former state minister K.N. Nehru, who made him his
personal assistant.
Nothing is
different in the states. You already know about the Badals family
business in Punjab. In Orissa, the ruling dynasty man is Naveen
Patnaik, Biju Patnaik’s son.
In Andhra,
Chandrababu Naidu is NTR’s son-in-law. The Janata Dal in Karnataka
consists largely of H.D. Deve Gowda and his son. The BJP is no
different. In Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje is the daughter of the
Rajmata of Gwalior, her son Dushyant Singh is an MP. Manvendra Singh
is the son former Union Minister Jaswant Singh. Jaswant Singh is now
an MP from
Darjeeling,
with his new found love for the Gorkhas.
When everyone is
doing it, what is there to be ashamed of? So when the Badals were to
fight the Bathinda elections, party president Sukhbir Singh Badal
did not even bother what the announcement would mean to anyone
bothered about democratic norms. “The Bathinda seat will be fought
by someone from the Badal family,” the Akali Dal announced. In which
other democracy have you heard of tickets being actually announced
for a “Family” rather than an individual? Amarinder Singh ensured
that his son Raninder gets the Congress ticket. Why stay behind in
any race to murder democratic norms?
But it all
brings us back to the fig leaf of defence that the politicos have:
if a doctor’s son, then why not a …
And on top of
it, a new argument has been marshaled. “Kin can be given tickets,
but it is the people who elect them.” That is truly wonderful,
except that it is also the argument about all criminals in politics.
After all, they come to Parliament only after the people elect them.
So, should we stop demanding that the political parties should not
give tickets to criminals? After all, no criminal has ever entered
Lok Sabha without being elected!
Being a doctor
or an engineer is not the same as being a politician. A doctor can
send his son to a medicine school and then hand him over his
practice, but politicians are supposed to emerge from among the
people, not spring forth from the loins of established politicians.
Children of politicians are dominating Indian politics now. As it
is, the politics has become disconnected from the concerns of the
people. With only a clutch of families getting to rule political
parties and government, we will once again be back to the bad old
days of the Maibaap Raja and begging-for-mercy Praja whose only
option will be to vote for one dynast rather than the other.
Ask the Bathinda
voters. Badal bahu or Maharaja’s Raj Kumar? That is the problem with
politics that runs along bloodlines.
3
June 2009
|
Read Also