Democracy or dynastic rule democratically?
Democracy is a Government of the people, by the people and for the people. Some say now democracy has become a Government off the people, buy the people and far (from) the people. Through democratic means political families are ruling the world. Why? This is because respecting and worshipping the King is in our blood. I remember the story of a King and a Queen that our mama or grandma used to narrate to lull us to sleep. Normally the story used to read like this. Once upon a time there lived a King. He had a beautiful queen and two children, a Prince and a Princess. They lived happily and after the death of the King the Prince ruled the Kingdom and so on. Now we have political ‘Royal Families’ whose children take over the reigns of their Kingdom ‘democratically’. The latest example is the succession of power in Pakistan by the son of assassinated former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto through a Will which Benazir signed well before her assassination. Benazir who was highlighted as a symbol of Zamhooriyat (democracy) also chose to Will her succession to his Son Bilawal and Husband. People of Pakistan accepted the Will without hesitation and now Zardari is ruling Pakistan. It is the people who gave him mandate to rule Pakistan
I recently read a report in a newspaper where it has been stated that Atal Behari Bajpai, the former Prime Minister of India would like that his adopted son and son-in-law succeed him in Lucknow Parliamentary seat. The example of Lalu Prasad Yadav is aptly to be mentioned here, as he did not rely on anybody and thrust his almost illiterate wife Rabri Devi to succeed him as the Chief Minister of Bihar. The people got bewildered, but she was ultimately accepted by the people of Bihar and in fact by the people of India. How after all this happened? It is nothing but the deep rooted sentiment of the people, where they have the story of the King and the Queen in some corner of their semi conscience brain.
It is not that these ‘Royal families’ of the democratic rule are responsible for this. In case of succession of Bilawal Bhutto, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was not under any compulsion to accept the Will of Benazir. But from the point of winning an election the courtier surrounding the power centre felt that Bilawal’s induction was the need of the hour and there was no fuss on his election as PPP Leader and the Party men accepted the decision without criticism.
Yet another important reason for hierarchical democracy is the nearness of the spouse and the children with the political leader. In most cases it is seen that the near and dear ones of the Leader are instrumental in helping the people in redressing their grievances. The family members lend a helping hand to those who are not able to reach the Leader. Gandhi Nehru family was highly criticized by almost all the political parties for the dynastic rule. But the criticism started dying down slowly when the opposition parties were not able to capture power either in the State or the Centre. There are a number of Leaders who are the beneficiaries of the dynastic rule. Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thakare is an example of dynastic rule, In Haryana, we have Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal family. Sindhia family in Rajasthan, Sheikh Abudulla family of Jammu & Kashmir, M.Karananidhi and Ram Rao family in south. In Orrissa Singh Deo family, Ravi Shankar Shukla family in Madhya Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh Gobind Ballabh Pant family, whose heir apparent was K.C.Pant and then Ela Pant, In Uttarakhand we have Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna family. Today his son Vijai Bahuguna is Congress MP and Rita Bahugna Joshi is President of the Women’s Wing of the Congress Party. Chaudhary Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh, and now Jayant is also in politics. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother and Son, Akhilesh Pratap Singh is MP. Kalyan Singh’s son. Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh, Arjun Singh, Prakash Singh Badal, Natwar Singh, Jaswant Singh, HD.Devegauda, and even L.K. Advani all grooming their kith and kin in politics. If you talk about Communists, you find Prakash Karat as the Party General Secretary and his wife Vrinda Karat as MP, whom it is said he wants to groom as the Prime Ministerial candidate.
If you look outside India, we find that our neighbours have dynastic rule. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the creator of Pakistan’s daughter Fatima Jinnah, Khan Bahadur Gaffar Khans family, Ayub Khan family, Bhutto family, Nawaz Sharrif family all had been instrumental in trying to establish dynastic rule democratically. In Nepal Koirala family and in Sri Lanka Bandarnaike family ruled. Even in USA you would find the dynastic rule by T. Roosevelt, Kennedy family, Bush family and now Clinton family, as Clinton’s wife Hilery Clinton became the Presidential candidate in forth coming elections, though now she has opted out from the race.
The question is whether it is a good sign for democracy or not. In USA they have a Presidential form of Government. The President, once elected, assumed vast powers. The US President is considered to be the most powerful President of the world .But in Parliamentary democracy, the principle of collective leadership is important. The Prime Minister is in fact the first among equals. When it comes to Party forums, you find the existence of a super High Command, who dictates terms to the Primer Minister and his team. It is in every party. In Congress the Party High Command is supreme and in the Bharatiya Janta Party the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) is supreme. In Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mayawati is the super High Command so is the case with Mulayam Singh who is equally a super High Command in his Party –SP. The votaries of dynastic rule advocate that a doctor’s son becomes a doctor, a shop-keeper’s son becomes a shop-keeper and a lawyer’s son becomes a lawyer and so on, then where is the harm in a politician’s son becoming a politician. The argument is valid. Prior to independence there were many families who fought for the freedom of the country. Their aim was to share the agonies of their family members who were fighting with the British. They were self-less in fighting for the country’s freedom. They went to Jail and suffered innumerable hardships. But today the kith and kin want to be in politics to rule over the people and mint money. In the process the grass-root workers who work for the society for a long time are ignored.
This is the irony of democracy! In the meanwhile I would like to finish the story by inserting the introductory lines-Once upon a time there lived a King. He had a beautiful queen …. In this penultimate paragraph I recollect the Ramdhun, a popular Bhajan (Hindu devotional song) which is based on a mantra by the 17th century Marathi saint poet Ram Das, which read –Raghupati Raghav RAJA Ram, Patitpawan Sitaram that was a favourite of Mahatma Gandhi. This ‘RAJA Ram’ song was sung by Gandhi ji and his followers as they walked during the 241 mile SALT MARCH to DANDI. This makes me to raise a question, isn’t it that our instinct accepts Raja Ram and the dynastic rule or monarchy because it has systematically and repeatedly been fed into our brains though we advocate and fight for democracy. If really so, then why blame the family rule beneficiaries and advocates? (D.N.Barola)