The First Family of the Congress is accused of running a political dynasty – no doubt there are hordes who are beholden to it for political benefits received and expected – but there are other parties too that have been much the same. For instance, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party. At one time, there were at least a dozen members from the UP’s strongman’s family, from MPs to a Zilla panchayat.
Examples galore. Each state has its own political dynasties though the Bharatiya Janata Party tries to position itself as an anti-dynasts; it has its own share but not as big as the DMK’s or the pre-split NCP or and the Shiv Sena. In Maharashtra, a new high – or low? – where the BJP has nominated close to a third of a municipal council’s total strength from one extended family. So, has the Shinde-led Sena.
Urban local body
This is in the context of the first round of elections to the urban local governments for which the polling is due on December 2. In Loha town, about 35 km from Nanded known for the Sikh shrine, Huzur Saheb, as many as six members from one extended family have been nominated by the BJP. It includes the head, Gajanan Suryavanshi who is himself a candidate to be the Loha Municipal Council. His would be a direct election to the chiefship.
The other case is in Badlapur, a town close to Mumbai which had seen two four-year-old children sexually assaulted within the school premises, now sees the Shinde-Shiv Sena nominating Waman Mhatre, the town’s party chief and five members of his family. Like Gajanan Suryavanshi, Mhatre too is a candidate for the presidency of the municipal council. This is an emerging trend. Should it become a beacon for other parties and families, nepotism will run deeper in politics.
It is tribalism, not democracy
A family seeking to occupy many seats within a small body is depriving party workers who slog for the bigger in the political food chain. This can and does deplete the chances for political growth of others but there is another argument bolstering such choice. In both cases, it is argued that there were not enough candidates available to pick likely winners. If that were the case, and not the local leaders’ resources and clout, the parties are scoring self-goals.
In Navi Mumbai, a satellite city of Mumbai, there is the example of the Ganesh Naik family that has seen almost every adult in the family taking turns to be the mayor of the municipal corporation. The last one became one on the premises that if he occupied the mayor’s chair, he would set a record: the youngest mayor in the country. But such family control on a civic body leads to concentration of power, and the gains are big by way of political dominance and pelf.
The Naiks proved that such power can be wielded by a single family in a city of over two million people. This kind of grip on power and a say in everything in the city was unusual, and now, going by Loha and Badlapur, it is likely to spread to other urban spots. Usually, such tight holds were a common thing across the country in the rural constituencies of either the Assembly or the Lok Sabha. Smaller towns like Loha, if all family members were elected, would throw up a pernicious development in democracy.
An exception
Fortunately, the two political parties have not nominated enough candidates from a single large or extended family, who if elected, could constitute a majority by themselves. In such a development, instead of attending the official council meetings, they can assemble at the dining table and run the town. This is an avoidable risk but in politics the only thing that matters is power, and consequently, pelf.
That explains why an MLA or even a minister gets a wife, brother, son, daughter or even an in-law nominated to local bodies first. If one runs through the list of nominations for the December 2 ULB elections, kith or kin have been favoured. The idea is to expand the family into politics and strengthen the local base. That ensures an easier succession should the need arise. In gram panchayats, it is worse. Many such bodies are run by the dominant male who even attends to official work, just like in the OTT series, Panchayat.
Shrilal Shukla, who once worked with VP Singh was not writing fiction in his Hindi novel Raag Darbari but portraying the way democracy functioned in the Republic of India. The village vaidya runs the village through the instrument of the gram panchayat and even gets his masseur elected to the post of the sarpanch. No one blinks in the village, and Shukla published his work in 1968 and received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1969. He should be praised for his prescience in politics.
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