BLUNT BUTCHER
JAMMU: Great day for the PDP to have Mehbooba Mufti elected as its President ‘unanimously’. There could not have been any other mode either, as none of the PDP workers could ever imagine beyond Muftis. It could have either been Mehbooba or Tassaduq Mufti after the departure of father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
The scenario is no different with arch rivals National Conference. The musical chair of the President has been rotating between Sheikh Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah. But for the last minute strategy, Omar Abdullah would have preceded Mehbooba Mufti in donning the mantle of father Senior Abdullah.
Ideologically, the two parties may be North Pole-South-Pole but strategically their modus operandi remains same to have grip over their respective parties.
The second important post of General Secretary in the PDP and the NC has remained within families. After the departure of Sheikh Nazir, younger brother of the NC President is in the net though as Additional General Secretary while the uncle of the Mufti sibling Sartaj Madni is holding all important assignment of General Secretary in the PDP.
In this family lineage, the NC and the PDP are emulating the national spirit though in the various other spheres they may have always reservations.
For over three decades the presidency of the Indian National Congress is getting bequeathed to the next gen or next of the kin. Rajiv Gandhi’s unfortunate assassination paved the way for wife Sonia Gandhi to hold the fort, only to be passed on to son Rahul Gandhi in a few weeks time. Hopefully, Rahul’s election too will be unanimous like that of Mehbooba Mufti. These dynasts leave no room for speculation unlike the BJP which believes in ‘obsolete’ way of democracy.
In the BJP, next of the kin of any President has never inherited the top position as a matter of right.
It has always been through a process of elections with cadre always guessing who to be next. At this point of time, no one in the BJP can predict or anticipate the successor of Amit Shah.
But the scenario in rest of the political parties is no different. Mulayam Singh Yadav did not find even his most trusted brother to head the Samajwadi Party and let it go to son Akhilesh Yadav, who played a true Mughal to humiliate the father at the fag-end of his political career. Despite this negativity, the elder Yadav would have never even thought about anyone except the son.
The fodder-scam accused Lalu Yadav religiously followed the dynastic lineage in Rashtriya Janata Dal when being convicted under proper judicial process.
He brought wife Rabri Devi from the kitchen to lead the Bihar government. Now he is preparing to handover the command to son, Tejasvi Yadav, who was virtually thrown out as Deputy Chief Minister for acts of omissions and commissions.
In south, DMK supremo Karunanidhi could never think beyond son Stephen to carry forward the family lineage of the ruling clan.
Whether in the government or in the opposition, the Muftis, the Abdullahs, the Yadavs of UP and Bihar or the Karunanidhis, they remain first political families of India or the states concerned, as the case may be.
The case with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, former UP Chief Minister Mayawati, former Secretary General CPI late Harkrishan Singh Surjit apart from former Chief Minister Tamil Nadu Late J Jayalalitha has been no different. They are and were indispensible for their parties as during their life time nobody emerged or will emerge to lead their respective parties as they hold copyrights on highest party positions.
Ironically, these dynasts always remain in the forefront to eulogise India’s democracy and gloat over power flowing from the people. They will trumpet India’s democratic feature from roof-tops but when it comes to practice, family takes precedence over democracy.
In this grim scenario of ‘Rajwada’ culture, the BJP alone stands tall amid the dynasts as a torch-bearer of democracy.
