The Hindu : All the cacophony over dynasties

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

All the cacophony over dynasties

By Inder Malhotra

No one with any claim to objectivity can deny that dynasties have become an integral part of democratic politics in this country, in its immediate neighbourhood and even beyond — extending from Indonesia and the Philippines right up to the land of the Bushes via Syria, Congo and now Greece. Curiously, even today many seem unaware that six years before Indira Gandhi first became Prime Minister in 1966, the Bandarnaike dynasty was well established in Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon.

Another remarkable fact, often deliberately ignored, is that in India there are myriad political dynasties, admittedly with limited domain but with no limit to their ambition. The Abdullahs of Kashmir; the Karunakarans of Kerala; the Thackerays of Maharashtra; and the Patnaiks of Orissa are but a few of the many examples. The DMK leader, M. Karunanidhi's nomination of his son, M.K. Stalin, as his political heir; the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav's grooming of son Akhilesh, and Laloo Yadav's remarkable success in ruling Bihar from behind his wife's Chief Ministerial chair also hammer home the point.

And yet, in the Indian political discourse the term dynasty has somehow become synonymous with only the Nehru-Gandhi clan as if its uniquely dazzling glamour and daunting durability — it ruled India for 37 of the first 42 years of Independence — have eclipsed other dynasties to the point of elimination.

Even so, what has gone on after the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's son, Rahul's induction into "active politics" and the nomination for the Lok Sabha from the Amethi constituency, the family's pocketborough, is astonishing beyond words. The hype and hullabaloo over this, on the one hand, and fire and brimstone, on the other, are not only signs of political immaturity but also of utter debasement of the dynasty debate.

The main culprit for this state of affairs is a bunch of Congress leaders whose politics is confined to the intrigue-filled drawing rooms of Lutyen's New Delhi, and whose sole idea for the grand revival of the Congress has been the induction into leadership of Ms. Gandhi's children. They are now jumping with joy though there is a twist in the tale, rather embarrassing to them. All the protagonists of mobilising the next generation were more keen on the major role going to Rahul's sister Priyanka, not to him, but let that pass.

The media must also accept its share of the blame. For, large sections of it, evidently in the grip of blind hysterics that have possessed Congressmen, are echoing the latter's belief that Rahul indeed is going to be the new redeemer. The young man may have potential. If so, he would need a long time to realise it. One wishes him well. But a moment's serious reflection would show how fatuous is the idea that this young man of 33, without an iota of political experience or any signs of communications skills, would turn the tide of Congress' steady decline merely because of his lineage.

Don't those expecting a miracle from Rahul remember that Indira Gandhi, before becoming Prime Minister, had been Congress president for a year and a member of the Congress Working Committee and the Parliamentary Board for a decade? The Nehru name was one reason why the "Syndicate" of the powerful party bosses preferred her to Morarji Desai. But it was not half as powerful as the Syndicate's real reason, based on its firm belief that the young woman would merely reign while they would rule.

Briefly this calculation seemed correct for Indira did earn the nickname "goongi gudiya," the Dumb Doll. Only later she showed the steel that was in her, split the Congress and having won the 1971 election hands down, dumped the Syndicate on the scrap heap of history. The magnificent victory in the Bangladesh War that followed completed the transformation of the goongi gudiya into the invincible goddess Durga. That also did not last. But, vanquished humiliatingly in the post-Emergency general election, she succeeded in returning to power spectacularly in 30 months flat.

Arguably Rajiv Gandhi was a novitiate when he ascended the office of Prime Minister within hour of his mother's assassination. But it should not be forgotten that by then he had been an MP and a general secretary of the Congress for over two years. The party then had two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha. Today, the Dynasty has been out of power for over 13 years while the Congress has been bereft of it for only eight.

The crowning irony of the current situation is that the BJP and its allies have lent support to the Congress' extravagant expectations of Rahul by vigorously attacking the party's attachment to the dynastic rule. And having inveighed against the Dynasty, they have brought into the saffron fold Sanjay Gandhi's son, Varun, and, of course, the youngster's mother, Maneka Gandhi. Add to this the tickets given to the sons of the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, and the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhra Raje, and all the cacophony over dynasties falls into place.

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