+ Follow
Photo by Lara Jameson: Pexels

India is a country where several dynasties ruled their principalities for ages. It was after Independence only when the people were freed from dynastic rule. More than five hundred such kingdoms and princely states were merged into the Indian Union. The nascent Indian state embraced democracy as its driving force, and every Indian citizen was accorded equal status by the Constitution. General Elections were held for the first time in 1951, and thereafter, elections have taken place every five years. In these elections, anyone can enter into the fray irrespective of his or her caste, faith, religion, or ideology. Similarly, every Indian has the right to vote in every election without any frills or preconditions. That is why so many candidates belonging to the depressed classes are successfully contesting and winning the elections. But this is not the end of the story. In the context of general elections, not all the contestants are commoners. A new class known as the ‘dynastic politician class’ has fast emerged on the electoral horizon, who cross all the hurdles of the selection process of the candidates with ease. They are the natural choices as candidates mainly because of their winnability in the elections due to their political and family clout, which helps them in influencing the voters and winning elections.

Interestingly, not all such candidates do not necessarily belong to the erstwhile rulers of princely states. On the contrary, many of them are the political scions of the leaders of the political parties. In simple language, they are the sons, daughters, or other kith and kin of the representatives of the political parties. In this way, a new political class has emerged in the political firmament of the country known as the dynastic class of politicians. Needless to say, this elite political class is playing the dominant role not only in elections but also in grabbing ministerial berths at all levels. In present times, almost every political party is enjoying the fruits of dynastic politics throughout India, and the problem is increasing day by day. At this juncture, it would be beneficial to refer to the latest survey on this issue conducted by the Indian Express newspaper recently, which is worth quoting here: 1

What The Indian Express Survey Says:

The Salient Points:

  • Sons and daughters of MLAs, MPs, Ministers, and party chiefs are first inducted into the party, and then they get a ticket to the legislature and the government in state after state, party after party. This trend is sweeping in both scale and scope.
  • Almost all national and regional parties are following this practice. To begin with, the largest national party at present, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in its third term in power at the Center, having 2,078 legislators across the states, has 387 dynasts in its fold, which amounts to 18.62%.
  • The previous clout of the Congress Party, which ruled the country for fairly long years at the Center and the majority of states, has been considerably reduced. At present, it can boast of only 857 total legislators all over the country, but its share in dynastic politics is just under double as compared to the BJP and amounts to 33.25%. This is a trend that starts right from its top with three Gandhis in Parliament.

In the case of regional parties, this trend becomes more prominent:

  • NDA's ally and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N Chandrababu's Telugu Desam Party has 51 dynasts out of 163 legislators (31.28%).
  • Janata Dal (United) has 28 legislators out of 81 (34.57%).
  • Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party has 55 dynasts out of 158 legislators (34.81%).
  • West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has 33 out of 268 legislators (12.12.31%).
  • In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M K Stalin's DMK has 30 of 172 legislators (17.44%).
  • The YSRCP has 15 dynasts of 56 legislators (26.78%).
  • At least 1,174 of India's 5,294 legislators in Parliament and state Assemblies and Councils-MPs, MLAs, and MLCs-have links to current or former legislators. This amounts to more than 22% of all legislators in the country.2
  • When it comes to families with more than one member currently serving in the state legislature or Parliament, the BJP is number one.Cutting across top parties from Tamil Nadu to Kashmir, Maharashtra to Odisha, West Bengal, and the Northeast, 149 families have more than one member currently placed in state legislatures or both houses of Parliament, adding up to a total of 337 legislators. In sheer scale, this is almost equal to the combined strength of State Assemblies in five States: Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Uttarakhand.

This list includes six Union Cabinet Ministers, five Ministers of State, nine Chief Ministers, seven Deputy Chief Ministers, 35 State Ministers, and two Assembly Speakers. And, of the 149 families, 23 have more than two members each in the State legislature or Parliament.3

The party-wise breakup of the 149 families is as such:

  • The BJP ranks first in the list with 84 legislators. Close on the heels of the BJP is the Congress party with 73 legislators.
  • Overall, these legislators include 49 pairs of fathers and daughters; seven mothers and sons; and four pairs of mothers and daughters.
  • There are 80 siblings and 21 married couples.
  • The list also includes 26 cousins, 17 pairs of uncles and nephews, and two aunts and nephews, among others.
  • 149 families include 27 whose numbers are fully aligned with the BJP; 23 have legislators in the BJP and other parties or independents.
  • Simultaneously, 32 families are fully aligned with the Congress, with five of them sharing legislators with other parties.4

Some Prominent Faces

The political heavyweights belonging to the dynastic families include:

  • Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, and his MLA son, Pankaj Singh;
  • Mallikarjun Kharge, a Rajya Sabha MP and Congress president, and his son Priyank Kharge, a Karnataka Minister and MLA;
  • Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and his son Srikant Shinde, a Lok Sabha MP, and
  • Karnataka CM Siddharamaiah and his younger son Yathindra, an MLC.

The Clans on the top of the list are as such:6

  • Gandhis (Congress);
  • Scindias (BJP);
  • Naidus (TDP); and
  • The families of the late Mulayam Singh Yadav and son Akhilesh Yadav (SP). Akhilesh's family has the most members on the list of current legislators, with eight: five in Lok Sabha, one in Rajya Sabha, and two MLAs from SP.
  • Sharad Pawar (NCP factions);
  • HD Deve Gowda (JDS);
  • YS Jagan Mohan (YSRCP);
  • K Chandrashekhar Rao (BRS);
  • BS Yediyurappa (BJP); and
  • MK Stalin (DMK).

Others include the four Jarkiholi brothers of Karnataka, who represent multiple parties.

  • Balachandra and Ramesh (BJP MLAs);
  • Satish (a Congress MLA and State Minister);
  • Priyanka, daughter of Satish, is a party MP; and
  • Lakhan (an independent MLC).
  • The Sangamas from the Northeast, including the wife, uncle, and brother-in-law of Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangama, who is the son of ex-Speaker the late PA Sangma, are all MLAs, too.
  • Pusapati Aditi Vijayalakshmi Gajapati Raju, the daughter of Goa Governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, is a TDP MLA from Vizianagaram.
  • Kriti Devi Debbarman, the niece of Telangana Governor Jishnu Debbarnan, is a Lok Sabha MP of the BJP from Tripura East.

The Lineage Legacy

  • 7. Three Assembly Speakers belonging to the BJP, including Maharashtra's Rahul Narvekar, Uttarakhand's Ritu Khanduri, and Chhattisgarh's Raman Singh-and several ministers and office-bearers are carrying forward their political legacy. Narvekar is the son-in-law of NCP MLC Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar, Khamduri is the daughter of ex-CM BC Khanduri, and Raman Singh's son is an ex-MP.
  • In Delhi, the legacies of all its three former Chief Ministers-Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, and Sushma Swaraj- are being carried forward by their children Harish Khurana (MLA), Parvesh Verma (MLA and Minister), and Bansuri Swaraj (MP).
  • The descendants of two ex-Assam Chief Ministers, Hiteshwar Saikia and Tarun Gogoi, are active politicians. Gogoi's son Gaurav is deputy leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, and Saikia’s son Debabrata is Leader of Opposition in the State. Telangana CM is the son-in-law of ex-Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy's brother.
  • The other Congress leaders of lineage legacy include Sachin Pilot, son of ex-Union Minister Rajesh Pilot (Rajasthan), Anupama Rawat, daughter of ex-CM Harish Rawat (Uttarakhand), Tushar Amarsinh Chaudhary, son of ex-CM Amarsinh Chaudhary (Gujarat), Deepender Singh Hooda, son of MLA and ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Haryana), and Vikramaditya Singh, son of ex-CM Virbhadra Singh (Himachal Pradesh).
  • The other parties on this list are mainly run by families that wield regional power, such as the Farook Abdullah and his son, Umar Abdullah, in J&K, and Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek in West Bengal.
  • The list is not yet complete. In many unregistered and recognized parties, this trend is common.
  • According to The Indian Express investigation, out of 1,174 dynasts across Houses, the number of kin of past and present legislators includes at least 21 Central ministers, 13 Chief Ministers, eight Deputy CMs, at least 129 State Ministers, four Assembly Speakers, and 18 leaders of their parties in different Houses.8

The trend of dynastic lineage legacy in the Indian political system is not new, but of late, there has been a perceptible increase in this trend. Though the country has imbibed the democratic system of governance, within the party system, this approach is largely missing. In all big political parties, the presence of dynasts has taken firm root. Most of the big and powerful political leaders are trying to bring their kith and kin to protect their vested interests and maintain their stronghold in the times of their less influential and powerless phase. There may be numerous other reasons for the perpetuation of this dynastic legacy in the political system, but the most significant aspect is the desire of the big and successful politicians to maintain a firm grip on the party that they had nourished with their hard work and labor. Apparently, there is nothing bad if the occupation of the son or daughter or any other kin is adopted by the latter. In every walk of life, we witness such things. But in the political parties, the inner democracy is the basic requirement. Only then can they contribute to the people of a democratic country like India. If these parties don't allow people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and only the high and mighty politicians’ relatives are allowed to thrive, the expectation of public good from these parties will suffer. And that will negate the very purpose of politics, which also includes good governance. Therefore, this undesirable practice of political lineage legacy needs to be stopped at the earliest. Everyone who has joined politics as their profession must get the fruits of their labor without any pull or pressure. Only then will democracy thrive and survive in this country.

.    .    .

References:

Discus