On neo-feudalism, Baba-log and dynasty politics
This post was prompted by Tavleen Singh’s recent article in the Indian Express titled, “We live in neo-feudal times“. In the article she wrote (emphasis added):
Handing parliamentary constituencies down in the family is so usual in India today that us political pundit types no longer write about this neo-feudalism.
…I despise democratic feudalism because I believe that it has caused serious damage to the political fabric of India. In my view, our two biggest problems, corruption and incompetence, are a direct consequence of this peculiarly Indian form of parliamentary democracy. The reason why spoilt, unemployable scions of political leaders are thrust into public life is not because they understand politics, governance or economics, but because they understand that politics is about making money. An example of how much money can be made came last week when Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of the late Chief Minister of Andhra, reportedly paid Rs 84 crore in advance tax. When compared to the Rs 2.92 lakh he paid last year, this indicates a jump of 1,100 per cent. Not even Mukesh Ambani could match the business skills of young Jagan.
…after Daddy passed on, Jagan tried immediately to force his way into the Chief Minister’s seat. When this failed, he took to wandering about Andhra, stirring up the masses. Is it a passion to serve the people of Andhra Pradesh that motivates this young man or a desire to keep the family fortune from drying up? You work it out.
…It is not just economically that hereditary politicians do serious damage, they do it politically to an even greater degree. When the leader of a political party decides that he wants to hand his political inheritance down to his son or daughter, what happens immediately is that he stops paying attention to strengthening his party. No longer does he go in search of intelligent, young Indians with a real desire to enter public service. He cannot afford to enlist this kind of person because they pose a clear and obvious threat to his chosen heir. So, the party starts to depend on ‘charisma’ and the ageing patriarch’s demagoguery.
When this happens, no more does said patriarch (or matriarch) bother with such things as real political issues because they no longer matter. All that matters is that the chosen heir appeals to the people enough for him or her to become acceptable as their future leader. If he is, then the family business continues to grow and flourish. Hereditary democracy has been very bad for India, but who cares about that.
Like many of you, I am aware of this phenomenon but not sure how widespread it is..This post is an attempt to get an idea of the extent…Below is a list (compiled from various sources and personal knowledge) of MPs who are sons/daughters of political leaders – almost all of whom are in “politics” solely because of their pedigree…Please do add to this list. I would like this to be as complete/comprehensive as possible. Please share widely…comments/thoughts welcome as always. Without further ado, below is the first list…
Image courtesy: Rediff
MPs (including Central Ministers) who are sons/daughters or niece/nephews of MPs or MLAs:
- Rahul Gandhi(Amethi, Congress)
- Sachin Pilot(Congress)
- Jyotiraditya Scindia(Congress)
- Milind Deora (Mumbai South, Congress)
- PM Sayeed (Lakshadweep, Congress)
- Agatha Sangma (Tura, NCP)
- Priya Dutt (Congress, Mumbai North Central)
- Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo (Bolangir, BJD)
- Varun Gandhi (Pilibhit, BJP)
- Anurag Singh Thakur (Hamirpur, BJP)
- Supriya Sule (NCP, Baramati)
- Nilesh Rane (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Congress)
- Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East, NCP)
- Sameer Bhujbal (Nashik, Congress)
- Mukul Wasnik (Ramtek, Congress)
- Vijay Bahuguna (Tehri-Garhwal, Congress)
- Shivakumar Udasi (Haveri, BJP)
- B Y Raghavendra (Shimoga, BJP)
- H D Kumaraswamy (Bangalore Rural, JD-S)
- Jagan Mohan (Kadapa, Congress)
- M K Azhagiri (Madurai, DMK)
- Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai, DMK)
- Akhilesh Yadav (Firozabad and Kannuaj, SP)
- Dharmendra Yadav (Badaun, SP)
- Jayant Chaudhary (Mathura, RLD)
- A Sampath (Attingal, CPM)
- Jose K Mani (Kottayam, Cong-M)
- Manish Tewari (Ludhiana, Congress)
- Ravneet Singh Bittu (Anandpur Saheb, Congress)
- Deepender Hooda (Rohtak, Congress)
- Kumari Selja (Ambala, Congress)
- Mausam Benazir Noor (Malda North, Congress)
- Dushyant Singh (Jhalawar-Baran, BJP)
- Jyoti Mirdha (Nagaur, Congress)
- Ijayraj singh (Kota, Congress)
- Tathagata Satpathy (Dhenkanal, BJD)
- Kanimozhi (Rajya Sabha, DMK)
- Sandeep Dixit (East Delhi, Congress)
In addition, most of you would know that we have at least two CMs who fall in this category ( Naveen Patnaik and Omar Abdullah) and at least one State Minister as well (Sukhbir Singh Badal). It is also worth mentioning that I have not included spouses in the list – nor are names of candidates who lost included above.
Additional Reference: In House, family matters
Please also read this post: On Baba-log and Mummy Papa MPs
You are missing a big name here who has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons there days
Mr. Ashok Chavan
Great to have you write on this subject.
While you have highlighted the most recent case of Andhra Pradesh and also the amount of money involved, one can make an educated guess from the figures quoted by you.
I have dealt with the same subject and not just being unhealthy, it is patently in violation of the spirit of democracy and mill stone around India’s neck. Youth does not bring in change if tutored in the old school of politics. “Dyanstic politics and Democary do not gel”
Hope you will read this post also.
sincerely
Anil
As often, some of the premises in the article make me laugh. Here is a quote from what you have quoted from the original article – “what happens immediately is that he stops paying attention to strengthening his party. No longer does he go in search of intelligent, young Indians with a real desire to enter public service.”
Honestly, I didn’t know that Indian leaders go about searching for intelligent people who have a real desire to enter public service. Which party does that?
The quoted part of the article merely seems to tick some familiar boxes. There is nothing of substance. Didn’t you find it boring? I did!!
I don’t think it is unique to India that parents try to groom thier sons and daughters for the same profession as they are in or for that matter the other way around. When it comes to politics, perhaps it is unique to India that so many of them succeed. I do not think you can blame the politicians for their success. I believe it is the hero worshipping culture of India.
Meera Kumari (Speaker LS, Cong)
Omar Abdullah (CM, JNK, NC)
Priya Dutt (Cong)
Uddhav Thackeray (SS Chief-in-waiting)
Najma Heptullah (ex-Cong, now BJP)
Last Maharashtra state elections: 14 sons and daughters stood for elections; most of them won.
Educated middle class don’t count for anything in politics, since at least 1970.
ajit singh, jayant chaudhary, ajay chautala,ranbir singh, vasundhara raje scindia —- some names that immediately come to mind.
Obama refering to Swamiji made me very happy. Very balanced speech. Speech writer has done a good job.
Obama quoted Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high” as he recalled India’s contribution to world civilisations and the message Swami Vivekananda delivered in 1893 at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago.
“It’s the richness of faiths celebrated by a visitor to my hometown of Chicago more than a century ago – the renowned Swami Vivekananda,” he said when he dwelt on the ‘very idea of India’ — ‘its embrace of all colours, castes and creed’.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/From-Gandhi-to-Ambedkar-Obama-remembers-all/708264/
Sometimes there’s a need for a French revolution style transformation needed to eject these fungi out of the nation.
Other babalog who have been forced on the public in various political capacities
Manvendra Singh (Jaswant Singh, BJP)
Dushyant Singh (Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Vijayraje Scindia, BJP)
Karuna Shukla ( AB Vajpayee, BJP)
Ranjan Bhattacharya (AB Vajpayee, BJP)
Pankaj Singh (Rajnath Singh, BJP)
K Muraleedharan ( K Karunakaran, Congress)
M K Stalin ( M Karunanidhi, DMK)
Karthi Chidambaram (PC, Congress)
Hemant Soren (Shibu Soren, JMM)
The list goes on.
Perpetuation of dynasties in a cesspool of corruption is endemic to India. It reminds me of a Bengali short story.
The writer is on a local train from the 24 Paragana to Kolkata. At one station, he saw the milkmen filling their milk containers with water from platform taps. The author asks, “Why do you do this? Won’t the consumer know that the milk is adulterated?”
“No sir. They have been drinking this milk for generations. They do not know the difference. It started with Grandfathers of the present stationmasters, who were stationmasters on this line. Our grandfathers were made to give them free milk. Their sons and grandsons also became stationmasters and similarly demanded free milk. So it has been going on for generations. They are so used to the adulterated milk, they do not know the difference. And if we do not add water to the milk, we won’t have milk for the people.”
“What about the people who pay? Don’t they know the difference”
“Moat people are used to this kind of milk for generations. If people who know about the quality of milk and complain, we stop supplying them. There are too few of that kind and there are so many others who need milk, any milk.”
When Banaphool wrote this story, he did not mean it to be a parable. But it has become now.
@ Gypsy: Thanks for that story; so apt!
All of you have overlooked Jatin Prasada, Congress MP from Shahjahanpur. I think he is in the ministry also.
I think this story is very apt in this context:
http://news.oneindia.in/2010/11/10/ajit-pawar-replaces-bhujwal-as-new-maha-deputy-cm.html
Thanks all for the name suggestions…will update and publish a second list shortly…
@Gypsy: Great story…Do you have a translation? Who wrote it? I would like to publish as a blog post.
Thanks
@ Shantanu,
As usual i disagree with you on the issue of dynastic politics. In democracy, all that is important for political parties is the chances of their candidate being elected. Now what is wrong in a son or a daughter of a politician being a politician?
To serve the people it really does not make the difference if you have a IIM/IIT degree or a degree from a local university or even for that matter of fact formal education (though personally i would like my politician to be educated). All that requires is a mindset to serve the people of India. There are many politicians, one such example is Kamaraj, ex CM Of tamil nadu in India who have contributed to the development of the state and or country but dont have credentials to brag on their education. Hence let us seperate the issue of education credentials from dynastic politics.
I dont see why dynastic politics should be a problem? In democracy surnames, people of india elect their representataives. If you or me want to contest elections, we haev the freedom to do so, why should we crib? Even the famous 2nd/3rd generation politicians from political dynasties you mention haev all contested a free and fair elections and have been elected by the people. If we dont want these famous 2nd names to get elected, we have all the opportunity to contest!
On one hand we talk about equal opportunities and the other hand, when we do have opportunities to contest elections, why should we crib. As for political parties choosing family members of famous 2nd names in politics, they do on the basis that there will be a higher chance for them to get elected! It is for us to ensure that famous names dont get a walk over by contesting against them if we think we can do better than them in their respective constituencies.
@Ashwin: Only the most naive (which I am sure you are not) would assert that there is no problem with dynastic politics…
You and I both know that we really do not have ANY chance of contesting and winning an elections against most of the “baba-log” simply because most elections are not based/decided on issues/policies but by equations of caste, vote-banks – or decide by patronage. Since people like you and me don’t have any patronage/favours to dish out, our chances of winning ANY election(s) are close to nil.
But Sh V Sundaram has made the case more eloquently that I ever can…Here is an excerpt from one of his recent articles (emphasis mine):
The essence of democracy lies in all the people having equal opportunities. Democracy means that the humblest person could hope to rise to the top. But this can never happen in India…only those with bags of money or those who can mobilise money bags can ever contest the elections and hope to reach the top.
How can paupers finance the election mela which is becoming more and more expensive? He only becomes a laughing stock pitted against these ‘imperial’ financial frauds. The superstructure of our democracy is indeed founded on money power and its ability to master physical groups like caste groups, communal groups, religious groups, cronies, sycophants and followers and to pay for them. With money, the leaders can buy others and with muscle, they can intimidate or even eliminate other opponents/contestants. It is therefore incorrect to say that all the Indian citizens have equal opportunities to contest elections. The solid concrete facts would clearly confirm that the contrary is the truth…
P.S. By the way, I made no mention of “degree” or “education” in my post.
@ Shantanu,
It is not about being naive. Your issue is why “babalog” get tickets to contest elections? The simple answer is the various parties they represent think that the chances of their electability is high and hence they get tickets!
I very well understand what you are trying to convey, BUT all i am saying is that we dont live in a ideal scenario, hence when there is equal opportunities for us to get contest and campaign then we should not crib about “babalog” contesting and getting elected!
You and me, have to wrok that much more harder when we contest elections to change the mindset of the people and asl them to make the right choice and hope that we are the right choice!
By questioning the credentials of “babalog” getting elected, we are in turn questioning the people who haev voted them to power. For me that is very dangerous thing to do!
@Ashwin: Let us dig deeper…Why do you think the “Baba-log’s” “chances of electability” are high? Is it because they are more “worthy” than their opponents? Is it because they have “proved” that they are the best to lead the society (and lets avoid the term, “serve the society” – I don’t want my leaders to “serve” us; I want them to lead us) or is it something else? Is it because they are inheritors of a “legacy” – of a network of rewards and obligations that is so strong that it virtually gurantees them victory?
And no, I am not “questioning” the electorate….the electorate has either been kept in blissful ignorance – and/or have opted out of the “system” – best illustrated by the 50% of Mumbai’s voters who chose not to vote after 26/11..
But as you mentioned, I am sure you “very well understand” what I am trying to convey! Thanks.
#18: Shantanu, one has to be careful while using terms such as ‘proved’ and ‘worthy’. We cannot use the word ‘proof’ in the sense in which it is used in pure maths. We will do well not to use the term ‘worthy’ unless its meaning is clearly understood. In fact, one could well argue that a win in an election automatically makes one a ‘worthy’ leader, and that such a win is a ‘proof’ that the leader is best-suited to lead that constituency.
The question about dynasty politics has been on every educated Indian’s mind ever since India became independent. The best comment that I have heard came from Najma Heptulla. Long time ago, on a TV program, an interviewer with a rather sour face and an ultra-moral stance asked Najma Heptulla thus. ‘It is said that your Dadaji (Maulan Azad) promoted you in Indian politics’. Pat came the reply – ‘To kya mere dadaji aapko promote karate?’
Add to this few more from AP.
1. Hari Krishna MLA(NTR’s Son, TDP)
2. Purundareswari MP & Minister (NTR’s Daugher, Jumped to CONG)
3. Lagadapati Rajgopal – MP(Late Upendra’s son-in-law, CONG)
4. YS Vivekananda reddy – MLC (YSR’ brother, CONG)
5. YS Jagan – MP (YSR’s SOn, cong)
6. Vijayamma – MLA(YSR’s wife, cong)
7. Marri Shashidar Reddy MLA (Marri Chennareddy son, CONG)
8. Vivek – MP (S/o venkataswamy, CONG)
9. another s/o venkataswamy is MLA – forgot his name
9. Vishnu vardhan reddy – MLA (s/o P.janardhan reddy, cong)
10. D.Sridhar -MLA (s/o another leader -forgot his name?? – cong)
11. K.T.R – MLA( s/0 KCR, TRS)
12. Harish Rao – MLA(son-in-law of KCR, TRS)
13. Ch. Ramesh – MLA(s/o Ch. Rajeshwar Rao, TRS)
The list is very-very long, it goes on..
If we can include immediate family members who are simultaneously holding MLA/MP, then list will be very-very-very long..
Some more names to add to the list:
Sunil Jakhar: son of Balaram Jakhar; Head of Punjab CLP
Vijay Singh: son of late Arjun Singh; Head of Cong in MP