{"id":162,"date":"2019-03-15T12:26:15","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T12:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/?p=162"},"modified":"2019-04-20T10:41:49","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T10:41:49","slug":"agenda-2019-part-5-prime-minister-modi-aspirational-india-will-prevent-india-becoming-dynastic-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/agenda-2019-part-5-prime-minister-modi-aspirational-india-will-prevent-india-becoming-dynastic-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Agenda 2019 \u2013 Part \u2013 5 : Prime Minister Modi and Aspirational India Will Prevent India From Becoming a Dynastic Democracy."},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/strong>ndia is the world\u2019s most populous and largest democracy.\u00a0 It is a highly aspirational nation which is also the world\u2019s fastest growing economy.\u00a0 Very soon we will be fifth largest economy in the world.\u00a0 After a decade, it is likely that we will be amongst the top three economies in terms of size alongwith United States and China.\u00a0 We have witnessed an exponential growth of the middle class. \u00a0The \u2018neo middle class\u2019 has emerged at a fast pace.<\/p>\n

How does the world\u2019s largest democracy elect its Governments?\u00a0 Should it be on the basis of leadership quality, policy, ideology, performance or should it be on the basis of dynasties and family charismas?<\/p>\n

The Congress and the making of a dynastic democracy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Post-Independence, the Congress party was a political group with a galaxy of tall national leaders.\u00a0 Yet Pt. Nehru started grooming his daughter Smt. Indira Gandhi as a successor.\u00a0 He made her the Congress President ahead of many other seniors.\u00a0 This sowed the seeds of an effort by many others to convert India to a dynastic democracy.\u00a0 Smt. Indira Gandhi first encouraged her younger son Sanjay Gandhi to be groomed as a successor but his sudden and unfortunate death prevented that.\u00a0 Thereafter, she groomed her elder son Rajiv Gandhi to be her successor.\u00a0 The Congress tried to remove itself from the shackles of dynasty for a brief period after the unfortunate assassination of Rajiv Gandhi but could not get out of its clutches for long.\u00a0 Smt. Sonia Gandhi then took over as the longest serving President of the Indian National Congress and thereafter passed on the leadership baton of the Party to her son Rahul Gandhi.\u00a0 Thus, generation after generation, the Congress Party\u2019s leadership berth is reserved for a member of the preferred family.\u00a0 When the Party is now in doldrums, another member of the family has entered the scene.<\/p>\n

The 1991 change<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conventionally it was only the Congress which was a party controlled by a family.\u00a0 Post-1991, a significant change took place in Indian politics.\u00a0 Most political parties which were created post-1991 converted themselves into dynastic parties.\u00a0 They had no organised structures, no parliamentary board and no decision making bodies.\u00a0 The leader of the party was the head dynast of the family.\u00a0 The succession of the party was within the family.\u00a0 The cadres owed loyalty only to the leader.\u00a0 The leaders were usually charismatic.\u00a0 In most cases the leader amassed wealth.\u00a0 The party was functioned like a personal property of the family.\u00a0 The family took all the decisions.\u00a0 The party became a crowd around a family.<\/p>\n

The demonstrative effect of family controlling political parties was that even non-dynastic parties converted their structure into a family owned party.\u00a0 Thus, from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu, there are very few political parties which have a structure left.\u00a0 In most cases, an individual controls it.\u00a0 When there is no immediate family, it is either the brother or nephew being groomed.\u00a0 The only parties which functioned outside the family and dynastic principle are the BJP, the Left parties and may be a few smaller ones.<\/p>\n

The dynasts believe that oligarchy helps in holding the party together, defines the line of authority and enforces discipline within the party.\u00a0 The ideas of the leader are their ideologies.\u00a0 Even his aberrations and eccentricities are accepted as the ideology.\u00a0 The leader\u2019s dictatorial tendencies are accepted in the larger interest of the party.\u00a0 Many of the leaders of such parties are highly corrupt.\u00a0 Charges of corruption, misdemeanour and even prosecution do not weaken their stranglehold on the party.\u00a0 Survival of the leader in such situations becomes the main political agenda of the party.\u00a0\u00a0 Even when the leaders are in prison after conviction, their stranglehold on the minds of the cadres remains.\u00a0 When dynasts defect from one coalition to another, the cadres don\u2019t question.\u00a0 They call it an opportunity.<\/p>\n

Impact on politics, policy and governance<\/strong><\/p>\n

The impact of this on politics, policy and governance is indeed adverse.\u00a0 Many of these parties are ill-equipped at governance.\u00a0 They win a reasonable number of seats and then claim their partnership share either in a State or the Central Government.\u00a0 They possess the capacity to make a difference in the arithmetic in relation to coalition politics.\u00a0 Since ethics in public life is a major casualty of these leaders\/ family owned parties, ethical standards in governance fall.\u00a0 These parties are indifferent to the concept of governance.\u00a0 They have very little interest in policy.\u00a0 Their political stand depends on an opportunity to better their own prospects.\u00a0 They prefer voicing either State issues or populist issues over sound policy.\u00a0 Their policy is to protect their constituency.<\/p>\n

Inner party democracy and policy become a big casualty \u2013 Horizontal induction of talent into politics also suffers.\u00a0 Many well-meaning citizens get disillusioned with the politics altogether.\u00a0 Some compete for keeping the leader and, at times, his family members, humoured.\u00a0 When parties thrust on themselves or on the polity and even governance, men of inadequate stature, vision and mind, the country suffers.\u00a0 While many found the system of family owned parties to be convenient, others dissented against this practice and wanted a change.\u00a0 They were looking for men of competence, clarity and those who would make a difference.\u00a0 Politics, like nature, abhor vacuum.\u00a0 The acceptance of Shri Narendra Modi at national level, after his tenure as a Chief Minister of Gujarat, was also on account of this popular desire to get rid of dynasties.\u00a0 Much before the BJP\u2019s Parliamentary Board in 2013 announced Shri Narendra Modi as Prime Ministerial candidate, the people of India had accepted him.<\/p>\n

The Modi factor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Narendra Modi grew from an extremely humble background.\u00a0 He worked in the party organisation till he was inducted into the leadership.\u00a0 He had to work and struggle for the positions that he got.\u00a0 He earned them.\u00a0 India was changing while the dynasts thought otherwise.\u00a0 If the results of 2014 elections are closely analysed, most caste based parties suffered a blow.\u00a0 Most family owned parties lost.\u00a0 This was not because of Prime Minister Modi\u2019s popularity alone, it was also because India had changed.\u00a0 An aspirational India with multiple modes of communication and knowledge gathering, realised that it is only men of merit, competence and integrity who can arouse public confidence.\u00a0 Mere membership of a family is no criteria.\u00a0 I am confident that this trend will continue in the 2019 elections.\u00a0 Prime Minister Modi and aspirational India will together demolish the concept of families.<\/p>\n

Are two dynasts better than one or is it otherwise?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The key question is \u2013 will the dynastic parties learn from their 2014 drubbing and a possible defeat in 2019?\u00a0 Possibly not.\u00a0 It is here that the people of India will have to bring about a change.\u00a0 India is not a monarchy.\u00a0 Neither is it a kingdom or dynastic democracy.\u00a0 Dynasts disapprove persons of talent and merit. \u00a0The real strength of democracy will be realised when myth of dynasties is finally buried and these parties are taken over by men of competence and merit.\u00a0 That will provide Indians with a better choice.<\/p>\n

There is another curious feature.\u00a0 Most families where a single dynast created the party, have moved into the next generation.\u00a0 In the next generation, there may be more than one heir.\u00a0 Both the heirs become aspirational and, therefore, the parent dynast distributes the largesse.\u00a0 But recent history has proved otherwise.\u00a0 Confucius had rightly said that just as there can be only one sun in the sky, there can be only one emperor on Earth.\u00a0 Where power sharing between successor dynasts takes place, who is the ultimate emperor?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Haryana, Bihar and Tamil Nadu have witnessed the battle of brothers.\u00a0 In Uttar Pradesh, it was father vs. son.\u00a0 Andhra Pradesh earlier witnessed the battle of the sons-in-law.\u00a0 In Karnataka there is an experiment of sons sharing the State and the grandsons sharing the Centre.\u00a0 In Maharashtra, the initial ripples have started.\u00a0 The Congress has undertaken the same experiment.\u00a0 It believes that two owners are better than one.\u00a0 Will Confucius be proved right and history record that one eventually prevailed over the other or will it be otherwise.\u00a0 One failed.\u00a0 The other won\u2019t take-off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India is the world\u2019s most populous and largest democracy.\u00a0 It is a highly aspirational nation which is also the world\u2019s fastest growing economy.\u00a0 Very soon we will be fifth largest economy in the world.\u00a0 After a decade, it is likely that we will be amongst the top three economies in terms of size alongwith United<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[153,174,173,175,165],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political","tag-agenda-2019","tag-aspirational-india","tag-modi","tag-prevent-india","tag-prime-minister"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamalsandesh.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}