Those of us who read about American politics are aware of the way George Bush won the 2000 elections. His so called victory was due to a Supreme Court ruling where the Republican nominated judges voted in his favor. Two of these judges were nominated when Bush’s father was the VP and two when he was the president. The latest is that Bush’s younger brother will run for the office in 2016. Power of the family put a decidedly less competent George Bush in the White House. Similar thing was observed in the 1960’s When John F Kennedy’s father used every dirty trick in the book to ensure a victory. If Al Gore were the president maybe he would not have gone into an unnecessary war with Iraq. World may be a different place right now. Margaret Thatcher’s son was involved in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. Thank god this jerk did not enter politics.
Of course as with everything else (especially criminal or negative in nature), we Indians take it to the next level. When it comes to the dynastic politics, Loksabha has essentially become a “Zamindaari” where the seats are given to family members. Patrick French writes the following:
- A shocking 100% of Indian MPs under the age of 30 are hereditary
- Two-thirds of Indian MPs under the age of 40 are from political families
- Less than 10% of MPs over the age of 70 are hereditary
- 27 MPs are classified as ‘hyperhereditary’, and 19 of them are in the Congress party.
By hyperhereditary, we mean that they have multiple family connections, and several family members who have made a career out of politics.
This is a serious problem because the real talent gets left behind while incompetent sons and daughters take the lead. If Narendra Modi were in Congress, he will never ever get to achieve anything because he is an outsider who can outshine the incompetent sons and daughters. In regional parties it is worse than it is in Congress. Look at DMK and the soap opera that is Karunanidhi’s family. It would be funny if Tamilnadu’s well being was not at stake.
The bigger problem is that this also leads to extreme corruption. Why do you think Saab Scania approached Rajiv Gandhi to play middleman to get the deal? It is because when you have a dynastic rule, you may as well paint a sign over the scion’s head “please deposit bribes here”. For the dynasty to grow they need money. To get money they need power. To keep power they need to institutionalize the corruption. NV Subramanian writes well when he says:
But the dynastic impulses of the Congress party are a two-way process. For exalting the Nehru-Gandhis, saving and insulating them from harm, the Congress leaders get to enjoy power and the forbidden fruits it brings, especially in the form of corruption. The nine years of Manmohan Singh have been the most corrupt in India’s history. How did that happen? Manmohan Singh’s reputation for personal honesty gave cover to the corrupt. And the Nehru-Gandhis used their name to get the corrupt to power twice. So why would the corrupt Congress have it differently?
Is there a way out of this? Of course. The voters have to become less selfish (think of the state and then nation rather than their own caste or worse) more mature in their choices. We cannot repeat the whole “India is Indira and Indira is India” kind of stupidity.
The Patrick French article can be read at: http://www.theindiasite.com/family-politics/family-politics-how-nepotistic-is-the-indian-parliament/
NV Subramanian can be read at: http://newsinsight.net/CorruptionAndtheCongress.aspx#page=page-1
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