National Interest: One dynasty dimming

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Shekhar Gupta : Feb 23 2013, 02:31 IST

Their word is law and the party needs that discipline. Illustration: the moment Sonia or Rahul says something, everybody nods and falls in line. If Narasimha Rao or Sitaram Kesri said something, everybody broke out in rebellion and rashes.

You have to assess Rahul Gandhi’s recent Jaipur speech in this perspective. It tugged immediately at fellow partymen’s heartstrings, but made little impact beyond. So here is the answer to the first half of our question: the dynasty has become even stronger within the Congress, with not even a whiff of discontent of the kind Nehru (occasionally), Indira (twice and substantively so) and Rajiv (most significant of all) faced. The dynasty owns the party as never before. But its pan-national vote-catching appeal is history. At least for now.

The Gandhi family has lost its pan-national appeal because several new dynasties — at least 15 of them politically significant — have risen in key electoral zones of India. Each one of these now has a strong, proprietary votebank and total ownership of its party. A pan-national dynasty no longer has the ability to breach these fortresses. From the Abdullahs in Kashmir, Badals in Punjab, Mulayam Singh in Uttar Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu and Jaganmohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu, Gowdas in Karnataka, the Thackerays and Pawars in Maharashtra, Lalu in Bihar to Naveen Patnaik in Orissa and the Sangmas in distant Meghalaya, all represent dynasties that may be limited by geography but cannot be challenged by a national party. So

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Reader's Comments (19)| Post a Comment

The Art of Self-Governance..

Vinayak Hirlekar | 25-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

Well said Mr. Gupta. To a certain extent the masses who elect these sons and druthers are guilty too. But to a larger extent absence of real political reforms like proper election funding framework, absence of clear rule of law and delayed justice has also contributed indirectly to maintain the hegemony of dynasties in various parts of the countries. That is why one thing we all citizens of this great land must be wary of, and that is to stay away of Nepotism in any form. The point is if your inherit something then you are totally disconnected from the grass-root reality. You don't really need to know the reality. All you have to focus on sucking up to Gandhi or other political bosses. The part of the solution ? Promote and elect self-made people from grass-roots, regardless of castes, creed or religions. Enforce the rule of Law and shun the appeasement of anyone in any form. However, treat all with fairness....This is not easy but mother India really deserves, nay, cries for it...

informative articles

dr rajesh m patni | 25-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

good article, having based information about Indian politics and local politicos but one thing is not mention in this article that is our Indian p politics is today totally based on regional base politics, and when national issues raised our people give mandate on national issues that time caste based and other local problems not in consider and issue of stability becomes most important thing and that matter is most imp plus point of congress party and Gandhi family

political empowerment

anupam swain | 25-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

every body is talking about empowering common man, but truly no political party encourage political empowerment, i think BJP up to some extent at national level is not dynasty oriented but that exist in state level. whatever it may be it is wisely stated that Gandhi dynasty, no it is not Gandhi, it would be appropriate to say Nehru dynasty is loosing appeal at national level.