POLITICAL FAMILIES AND FAMILY POLITICS

South Asia, which had a feudal history and was once under British occupation, is now free politically but despite three generational changes, the feudal subjugation, the societal inequality and the fascination for validation from our erstwhile occupiers simply refuses to go. This is predominantly because the power was handed over by the ‘gora sahibs’ to the ‘bhura sahibs’, some anglophile families, who were simply not in touch with the sensibilities of the hinterland. These families were rich and influential and considered ruling their respective countries as their birth right, even though all these countries claimed to be democracies! Thus, we had the Bhuttos and the Sharifs in Pakistan, the Bandernayekes, Premadasas, Jayavardhanes  and the Rajapaksas in Sri Lanka and a plethora of family parties led by the Congress in India. Even the newly formed Bangladesh has two opposing family parties of Bangobandhu Shekh Mujib and Genl. Zia ul Haq.

Family parties set narratives and develop eco systems

The political families are elites, educated, however little, in English medium schools, and considered crème-de-la-crème of their societies. They hog disproportionate limelight and have disproportionately dominated the social discourse in their respective countries thus setting the narratives. The fascination for them simply refuses to die among their cadre and can only be matched by the hatred for the opposing leader and his/her cadre. They claim to have a copyright on everything that is good, proper and ethical in their land and the cause of all the progress made by their respective countries whether it is land, sea, air or outer space. They have maintained cozy relations with their erstwhile occupiers by erasing the latter’s horror tales of torture and subjugation by stories of ‘colonial charm’ in our history books. They are of the opinion that their countries simply did not exist before their independence from British rule. They have all but whitewashed our glorious history of more than 2000 years and presented their respective countries as backward, underdeveloped, caste-ridden, scantily clad, poorly fed land of rope tricks and snake-charmers.

In India the Congress party, the party of Nehru and Indira Gandhi and their descendents owns the copyright of ‘the essence of India’. So, when they are not in power, as it sometimes happens in vibrant democracies, India as a nation stops existing and democracy dies. It metamorphoses into an alien land, very much unlike the India of their dreams where a ruling family, with a halo around them, has been deprived of the right to rule and loot. Corruption cases against them are invariably politically motivated, and if members of the royal family abuse a democratically elected prime minister or his party, caste and community, they wonder how the law of the land dare can hold them guilty! Even in a democracy they demand privilege status, and routinely get it from their dedicated and cultivated courtiers. They have developed an eco system around them while in power for 65 years, a system comprising of politicians, bureaucrats, authors, journalists, news anchors, jurists and shady arms dealers and dalals who feed them with necessary resources to keep their halo shining. Such is their clout with the left and left of centre intelligentsia of the world that whenever they are not in power India slips below Palestine in happiness index, below Afghanistan in democracy index, below Ethiopia in hunger index and below Somalia in safety index. 

Omnipresence of family parties

As if one Congress was not enough, this longest ruling party of India has set a very bad example for our next generation of political parties. A look at the political map of India will show you that almost all the states now have influential political families, which have ruled these states from time to time. Thus we have the Abdullas and the Muftis in Jammu & Kashmir, the Badals in Punjab, Mulayam Sing and Mayawati families in Uttar Pradesh, Laloo and Paswan families in Bihar, Soren family in Jharkhand, Mamta family in Bengal, Gogoi family in Assam, Thakrey and Pawar families in Maharashtra, KCR and Owasi family in Telengana, Deve Gauda family in Karnataka, Karunanidhi family in Tamilnadu, and the list goes on and on and on. These families have entrenched themselves in their respective states and rule them as their personal fiefdom.

Political families often did not start as political parties. Akali Dal was founded in 1920 as a keeper of the Sikh faith but transformed under Prakash Singh Badal into a strong political outfit in 1920s.

The common thread that binds all these families together is that they want to play with democracy in such a way that the can seamlessly hand over power to the next generation, as the Congress has been so successfully doing in the centre. Another common feature in them, just like the Congress, is that they are all corrupt to the core, and these families are filthy rich. They resent the fact that their ill-gotten wealth is now being investigated by the law enforcement agencies and they are being sent behind bars one by one. A vulgar display of their stock-pile of cash is often on display in our television screen and despite obvious proof of involvement they claim they are being made victims of political vendetta. They have looted the state coffers to run their political parties and feed their eco-system and their states are neck deep in debt.

The present stresses

These family run political parties are now under severe stress. They are finding it extremely difficult to grow, not so much because of their public image, but because of their internal structure, or more precisely, lack of it. The hierarchy in these parties is such that genuine talent in them feels suffocated and trapped. They know, right from the beginning that even if they rise in the hierarchy to become the party president, chief minister or prime minister, the family chieftain will remain their boss. This subservience to the unelected has not gone down well with both their cadre and their electorate. An octogenarian prime minister swallowing the humiliation of seeing a bill approved by his parliament shredded by a rising star of the ruling family, half his age, particularly when the star has failed to rise in more than two decades, did not make a pretty picture on television.

Hemorrhaging talent

The cadre has now realized that there is a glass ceiling up there which they have no hope of breaking. They stay in the party till their pride can bow down and their egos allow, and then they leave for greener pastures. Thus the Congress party has lost Mamta, Hemanta, Jyotiraditya, Gulam Nabi, Sunil Jakhar, R.P.N. Singh, Ashwini Kumar, Kapil Sibal and Sushmita Deb and is hemorrhaging talent like bleeding piles. The electorate in the last nine years has realized that a real prime minister, genuinely elected by the people of India and not by a party high command, is far more confident, assertive and efficient than a puppet prime minister, whose invisible strings are in the hands  of a family of puppeteers.

Brawls within ruling families

To compound their discomfort, the family parties have been inflicted by the virus of family brawl and discontent. This interesting development also started in Congress party after the untimely demise of Sanjay Gandhi, the heir apparent of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Sensing that Maneka, Sanjay’s widow, who was already in politics, could pose a challenge to the smooth passage of the crown from Indira to the reluctant son Rajive Gandhi, a political novice, Mrs. Indira Gandhi unceremoniously threw out Maneka and her baby Varun from her prime ministerial residence. As the press then was a part of the Congress eco system, this was done virtually noiselessly.

Today these family feuds are found dime a dozen. Thus, Pawar vs. Pawar, Thakrey vs. Thakrey, Paswan vs. Paswan, Akhilesh vs. Shivpal brawls have broken out because no one likes to give up a lion’s share of the family hunt. Most contentious issues crop up when time comes to pass on the mantle to the next generation.  As elections to choose the next leader is unknown in family parties members of the ruling party fight it out. Such complexities are not there if the hierarchy in the family is decided, like Nehru to Indira to Rajiv to Soniya to Rahul, or Bal Thakrey to Uddhav to Aditya,  or H.D. Deva Gauda to H.D. Kumaraswami, or K.C.R to K.T.R. But if the line of succession is not defined then there is trouble. Bal Thakrey could not keep his charismatic nephew in the fold of Shiv Sena and Mulayam could not keep his brother satisfied in Samajwadi Party. We don’t know which Paswan will get the mantle of L.J.P from Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Pawar is finding it hard to choose between daughter Supriya and nephew Ajit. Unmarried aunts have been very generous in passing on their political mantle to their nephews. Mamta is grooming Abhishekh and Mayawati  is coaching Akash Anand for the job. So, these parties are not electing their next leader, but a leader from the ruling family is being imposed upon the cadre. Once a succession trouble erupts governance suffers and the state skids out of control. Political opponents, as eager vultures, now swoop in and have a field day.

In a highly competitive electoral scenario a family can be a source of strategic weakness as the Congress is experiencing today. They are today a party of sycophants busy in polishing the family’s halo rather than planning a political revival. The victory in Karnataka should have taught them the importance of non family regional satraps. In the centre however, they continue to go to a third successive election with a leader who is God’s greatest gift to Narendra Modi.

Not a South Asian phenomenon

Before I end I must tell you that political families do not exist in South Asia only. At least two members of the Kennedy, Bush, Roosevelt, and Clinton families of the U.S, Trudeau family of Canada, Arslan and Hariri families of Lebanon, Hatoyama family of Japan, Aliyev family of Azerbaijan, Sukarno family of Indonesia, Ramgoolam family of Mauritius, Aquino family of Philippines, Lee Kuan Yew family of Singapore, Park Chung Hee family of South Korea, Kallas family of Estonia, Papandreou family of Greece, Le Pen family of France, have all occupied the top position in their country’s government and these are all democracies. The fact that autocracies like Kim family of North Korea and Castro family in Cuba too have ruled their respective countries for generations is certainly no surprise.