Political Dynasty

Political Dynasty

Politics is the system designed “to rule”, originating from an innate nature of human beings to dominate over each other and the desire to leave a trail even after death. Politics is as old as the human settlements, formation of societies and stabilization of civilizations. Selection of chieftains, leaders, kings is part of political system across the globe to govern the subjects. It is assumed that the king or the leader accepts the whole mass as his family but not only those having same blood line as his. Selecting his heir, a suitable one to throne is one of the prime duties of a king before he retires from his duty. Here “suitable heir” is not according to his personal derelictions but according to the best interests of his masses. If his son has those qualities to bear responsibilities of a competent king, the king may select him as his heir. As the offspring of a king grows up under the shadow of the king and the best teachers of the kingdom impart knowledge in different streams of life to the offspring, offspring might have a fair chance of becoming a ‘suitable heir’. But there had illustrious examples when kings had not found the desired qualities of a king in his offspring and selected someone from his court or general public as his heir, negating chance to his blood line.

Example of the great king ‘Bharat’ is the most glorious one. Today’s India adorned its name ‘Bharat’ from the name of its great king ‘Bharat’ who took borders of ‘Aryabarat’ erstwhile name of India, to as far as Afghanistan and Iran in the north and till Sri Lanka in the south. After his victories across different terrains, he came to his capital ‘Hanstinapur’ to a grand reception. He was assigned the job to select his heir and to give ‘Aryabarat’ its new king. In shocking surprise to many, he did not immediately announce his eldest son as his heir as commonly assumed by his ministers and advisors.  To dispel his doubts, he consulted an elder sage, Gann. Acting on sage’s advice and earning wrath and displeasure of his mother and wives, he appointed a young man from his court as his heir though he had nine sons to choose from. There are numerous lessons that can be learnt from this example. But the most prominent one was: ‘A king might have done a lot for his country but the country does not allow him to select his heir merely based on his bloodline, his personal preferences or under any pressure but solely based on a person’s ability to lead the kingdom”. King Bharat was not only unparalleled in battle fields but was a righteous and impartial king too. The trend to select heir to throne based on merit and not on birth continued till Dhithrastra became king of Bharat. His lust for power and urge to see his mighty but immoral son Duryodhan as his heir led to the fierce battle of ‘Mahabharata’ at Kurushetra.  What happened before Mahabharata and post Mahabharata is known to most of the readers of this article.

Putting a pause to that era and coming to the period of India’s independence from colonial British rule. Mahatma Gandhi’s position was not less than the king Bharat, not in terms of skills at warfare but in terms of acceptance by common mass of this country. But Mahatma Gandhi took this acceptance for a ride and forgot his own quote “Don’t see what your country has done for you but always think what you can do for your country “.  There was no dearth of more competent people to lead the country at the time of independence but he chose Jawaharlal Nehru as the country’s leader, putting his personal preference at the helm of his decision and ignoring the precedent set by the king Bharat. That gross mistake became a deep sore in the history of India post-independence. The country is still reeling under the pressure of that decision. Taking the cue from his mentor, Nehru ruled the country for 17 years, longest serving prime minister and made appropriate arrangements for his bloodline to continue his legacy of ruling this country by hook or by crook. Nehru’s leadership started a systematic process of capturing a common man’s mindset by naming major roads, Institutions, airports, various awards after his family member’s name that included adopted patriarch, Mahatma Gandhi also. Eminent intellectuals who sang paeans for Nehru’s leadership were given golden boots to move on and those who did not stoop were shunted down. The trend had been practiced religiously so far and even today. Nehru’s bloodline which got the surname of ‘Gandhi’ which was not a mistake anyways, ruled the country for 38 years directly and 13 years indirectly altogether 51 years.  The so called largest democracy in the world does not look like democracy at all but a monarchy under the curtains of democracy.  Corruption took the shape of cancer from its nascent stage under Nehru’s rule to full grown up stage under the indirect rule of Sonia Gandhi, yet another Gandhi.  Under the direct rule of Nehru-Gandhi, scams amounting to Rs. 1428crore (keeping 2011 whole sale price index number for calculation) has been reported. Under the indirect rule of current imported Gandhi, scams worth 1, 98,546 crore (it does not include coal scam) has been reported so far. With two more years to rule before the scheduled general elections, the country is hopeful of witnessing new world records in the field of scams that would beat all previous records. Unaccounted reports of black money belonging to the prominent political dynasty may belittle any wild imagination.

This dynastic rule not only helped corruption which thrived like weeds in all spheres of life but also sprouted a new trend among different political parties’ specially regional ones.  Under the aegis of Gandhi dynasty, regional parties too adopted dynastic mode of politics. Parties like Samajwadi, Akali Dal, DMK, Shiv Sena, Lok Dal, NCP and NC are few of many who are emboldening the stolid pillars of democracy by adopting the principles of monarchy. Parties have become family fiefdoms. Trend has not left any corner of India right from Kashmir (National Conference, PDP) to Tamilnadu (DMK). Some of these parties have 20% of their elected MPs from the same family. World’s largest democracy has become an archipelago of small blocks of monarchies with the biggest monarchial block at the Centre.

Dhithrastra might have died centuries back but his very ambitions and lust for power are still breathing in many hearts today. Crafty ministers of Dhithrastra are busy in smothering voices raised against the whims of their king. They are working day and night preparing stage for smooth coronation of new Duryodhans. These Duryodhans are no less than the old one in terms of immorality, stupidity and power greed.

But is the country ready for Mahabharata? Can anyone hear the drum beats coming from Kurushetra or shrill of the conch of Krishna? The country is waiting for the unified force of Pandavs stretching from snow clad Himalayas to brackish waters of Bay of Bengal. The red soil of Kurushetra is gearing up to taste some fresh blood.

Note- Scams amount calculated based on newspaper, The Hindu’s article