The Indian Parliament is full of relatives — more than ever before. Mothers and sons, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, third-generation stars, wives, widows, in-laws, uncles and nephews. Has democracy become a monarchy by other means?
Over a decade ago, when standards of behavior in the Indian Parliament were nose-diving — what with acrimony, physical demonstrations, unparliamentary language, personal attacks and constant shrill bickering, a perpetual partisan divide and even occasional exchange of physical blows becoming the order of the day — former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wished that Indian politics would live up to the age-old ideal of vasudeva kutumbikam (“all the universe is a family”). Today it seems that his wish has come true, and with a vengeance.
The biggest winner of the recent Lok Sabha elections was not the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) but rather the dynasty; a belief that democracy is and should be monarchy through other means. Every leader, sans party, beyond ideological divide, beyond left, right or center, of communalism or secularism, is a votary of family rule, whose parliamentary seats are part of the family’s estate. Relatives thrive in the Indian Parliament today. Two mother-son sets, all four from one family — Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and Maneka and Varun Gandhi — from Congress and BJP respectively are divided on every other possible issue but still united in leading the family’s hold over political power. Then there are four father-son sets. Ajit Singh and Jayant Chaudhary (Ajit’s father, Charan Singh, was a former prime minister); HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy (Gowda is a former prime minister, while his son was chief minister of Karnataka); Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav (Singh was former defense minister and UP chief minister); and Adhikari Sisir Kumar and Adhikari Suvendu. In all, 27 MPs in Lok Sabha today belong to prominent political families: Sons, daughters, siblings, wives, cousins, nephews — highlighting the Indian political family business power, where parliamentary seats are heirlooms to be passed on.
In contrast, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar — ever a champion of empowering women — has her daughter, Supriya Sule, as a parliamentary colleague, while Farooq Abdullah (former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir) will share treasury benches with son-in-law Sachin Pilot, and Abdullah’s son, Omar Abdullah, rules Jammu and Kashmir as chief minister. Incidentally, Pilot is son of the late Congress leader, Rajesh Pilot.
Another family who can give a run for their money are the Karunanidhis, in Tamil Nadu. Old man Karunanidhi, chief minister at 82, with three wives, has made eldest son Azhagiri and nephew Dayanidhi Maran ministers in the central Cabinet, while son Stalin was made deputy chief minister in Tamil Nadu and daughter Kanimozhi has to make do with merely being a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Indian Parliament).
The fountainhead of this tendency was the reign of three generations of Nehru-Gandhis; Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and grandson Rajiv Gandhi as prime ministers. While Rajiv’s widow, an Italian, Sonia (nee Manio) Gandhi refused prime ministership owing to sustained opposition by the BJP, her son Rahul is waiting to take over the mantle. Chieftains and warlords have emulated that model across the nation.
Some of the great Indian political families include Badals of Punjab, Yadavs in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Thackerays and Pawars in Maharashtra, Patnaiks in Orissa and Reddys in Andhra Pradesh.
Family power in politics is nothing new to south Asia, where dynasties like the Gandhis and Bhuttos and Hasinas have held clout for generations. But with family name more important in politics than individual qualities or merits in India, it strikes at the very core of democracy. Grassroots activists and student leaders with no patronage matter little, and given the huge money and muscle power involved in elections, non-family upstarts can only dream of power from the sidelines. In fact, its impact goes beyond politics, with the reign of dynasties extending to most businesses, even Bollywood.
