Nothing succeeds like succession

As the state Assembly elections rumble on, trends that will affect future contests in the country have come to the fore. The Nehru-Gandhi family has, of course, given the lead in dynastic politics, but grooming close family members has become the norm cutting across party lines, with rare exceptions. And the avidity with which the smaller regional parties are following the Congress lead is truly amazing. Many politicians are not shy in declaring that there is nothing wrong with a father passing on the torch to his son, daughter, son-in-law or another close family member much like a doctor passes on his practice to his progeny.

Second, political parties have discovered in a big way that, contrary to the fashion the last time around, even such a party as the Samajwadi Party, which prided itself on being anti-technology and anti-English to emphasise its rural roots, has embraced both not only in its campaign rhetoric but in basing its campaigns on computer technology, complete with prepared discs. And English is being given a place of honour because the truth has dawned on one and all that English has become the language of aspiration, particularly for someone from a rural background.
Third, with these Assembly elections, parties have discovered the immense value of the youth vote. Youth is a relative term in Indian politics, with our “young” politicians in their early 40s, but with the average age of men and women in office at the Centre and in the states touching 70, the old are making suitable noises about encouraging the young. Rahul Gandhi is the prime example of one seeking to enthuse the youth vote and there can be little doubt that, whatever be the results of the Uttar Pradesh election, he will be fielded as the prime ministerial candidate in 2014.
Other parties have not been sitting idle. In at least two instances, sons of party leaders have been anointed as future successors, with their fathers staying on just long enough to keep the seat warm for them. Punjab’s chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, the leader of the Akali Dal, has already made his son Sukhbir the deputy chief minister. And in the case of the Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav, he has given his son Akhilesh all the space to spread himself across Uttar Pradesh to declare his political arrival. In either case, if the party wins enough votes to lead a coalition, the father will initially take office as chief minister only to give the chair to his son after a brief interval.
The amazing extent of family politics in India is partly due to the tradition of most parties shunning the concept of cadre-based institutions. The Congress traditionally relied on the leader’s charisma, starting with Jawaharlal Nehru, followed after a brief interregnum by Indira Gandhi and later her son Rajiv, while his wife Sonia chose to appoint a regent as Prime Minister for political reasons, given the opposition manufactured by the Opposition on account of her foreign origin. Often the Congress leader’s charisma has rubbed off on to the son or daughter although Indira won her spurs in the Bangladesh War even as she blotted her copybook by imposing the Emergency on the country later achieving the miracle of resurrecting herself politically. Her career, as later her son Rajiv’s, tragically ended in assassination.
The Bharatiya Janata Party resisted the pull of family politics until rather recently because it could rely on its mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with its dedicated cadres coming to its aid at election time and otherwise. But events now prove nearly every day that more and more BJP leaders at the state and regional levels are pushing their sons and daughters into legislatures in preparation for the day they can wear their fathers’ crown.
The clash between the RSS way and the pulls of ego and personality politics are vitiating the atmosphere in the Sangh Parivar to the detriment of its traditional party discipline. This is highlighted by the kingly airs the Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi, has assumed, ignoring senior leaders like L.K. Advani and often the RSS hierarchy. He is acting thus on the basis of his understanding that his party and the RSS need him more than he needs them. The manner in which he had himself crowned in different flamboyant headgear at a sadhbhavna exercise, seated in a kingly chair while Mr Advani and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, sat as mere courtiers, was an extraordinary ego trip clothed in political showmanship.
The Communist parties are in a class of their own and have never mattered nationally, except for the Left, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) offering the Congress outside support in its hour of need. The CPI(M) has of course ruled West Bengal for decades and Kerala off and on, apart from tiny Tripura, but it has hardly been in the national mainstream and has, like its Communist ally, the CPI, always worshipped foreign gods, even after the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and the rest of Europe. It is the Maoists, with their contempt for democratic norms, who have made the most impact by taking up arms against the state to fight their vintage battles.
In its own way, Indian politics is progressing and, however hesitantly, trying to catch up with the modern age. Western observers have always marvelled at the longevity of India’s grey-haired politicians, with even foreign ministers — a job that requires constant travel — often touching 70 in office. Groomed by their fathers, the sons and other princelings might yet claim a stake in running the country. Computers and tablets might yet define India’s new rulers. But modern technology traditionally goes hand in hand with the Indian way of doing things where old remains gold. If the incongruities strike the outsider as odd, so be it. India has given the world a unique form of democracy because the essence of the Indian genius lies in reconciling contradictions.

The writer can be contacted at snihalsingh@gmail.com