In January 2011, Outlook magazine published a book excerpt
from Patrick French’s ‘India: A Portrait – An intimate biography of 1.2 billion people’. The book was immensely readable and moderately enjoyable. However the
excerpt in Outlook focussed on the hereditary nature of our leaders especially
in the parliament. It was aptly titled ‘The Princely State Of India’. I especially liked
the quantitative analysis (which on Indian political genealogy is always in
short supply) and was mildly surprised when it was revealed that all MPs aged
less than 30 are hereditary linked to a previous leader/MP. The usual scenario
the previous MP dies and the son (or in some instances daughter) steps in to
fill the ‘void’. The elections are merely a formality or a ‘rajyabhishek’
(coronation). The excerpt gave a number of examples of such lateral familial
entry to politics, and even if someone is completely ignorant of what happens
at the level of parliament one does not need to look further than the 'First
family' to know how political succession works in India.
Being a proud Bengali (and like most Bengalis thinking rest
of India as uncultured, steeped in ‘aya ram gaya ram’ political culture) I
decided to check how do MPs from Bengal fare. Remember this is 2011, the time
when the Red citadel is about to be breached in state level elections, the Lok
Sabha votes of 2009 have been plentiful and TMC candidates were winning at many
places (but the state was still run by communist parties). As per the data mined
by Patrick French only 1 out of 15 communist MPs from WB had any hereditary
linkages, around 3 TMC MPs out of 19 had family connections (basically second
generation political leaders), for Congress 4 out of 6 elected MPs had direct
family connections with previous leaders. TMC also had three non-political
inducted MPs who were either actors or singers. One of these later rebelled and
started abstaining from parliamentary proceedings leading to almost no
political representation from this constituency. Two others were show caused by
the party for siding with a tainted Rajya sabha MP.
How is the situation for 2014 election, well the hereditary
MPs have been retained and new ones are being inducted. A young man whose only
qualification is that he is related to our dear leader. He seems to have run a political
platform which is web based and in recent days have been censured by supreme
leader for excesses in promoting himself. Being a political junkie (like most
Bengalis) it seemed that there is a sure shot formula to deduce a median Indian
MP – male, 45-50 yrs, worth over 5 crores and a strong family background in
politics. Unfortunately this trend, to some extent, is also being manifested in Bengal, it is
indeed sad that people like me who voted for change are being increasingly
saddled with a nepotistic list of MPs and it seems that there is no way out of
this vicious cycle of hereditary rule in India.
