All in the family

As the lists are bared to public view, one after the other, they provide some early intimations of the political fight that lies ahead. Beca...

As the lists are bared to public view, one after the other, they provide some early intimations of the political fight that lies ahead. Because the party’s list of candidates is, after all, a narrative and a balancing act. It speaks about the clout or lack thereof, of a caste, a region, leader or candidate. In the age of coalitions, it also mirrors the relative bargaining strength of parties that are stepping into the arena as an alliance. But one thing remains the same from list to list. Be it the BJP or the Congress, in Rajasthan or in Madhya Pradesh, family ties are the overriding factor, the best criterion for selecting a candidate is pedigree. It has become so very familiar. Nepotism is no longer news.

It should be. That the BJP summons Mrs Kirti Azad against the Congress’s Sheila Dikshit in Delhi, or that the Congress everywhere, and especially in Rajasthan, passes down seats as family heirlooms, is worrisome. It is depressing that succession continues to triumph so smoothly over competition in our politics. It is not just that the deserving candidates get disheartened as armies of sisters, brothers, wives and brothers-in-law leapfrog to positions of power. The overweening power of flesh and blood points to a political culture that is yet to commit itself to impartial norms and procedures. More than five decades after India began its tryst with democracy, parties still refuse to articulate the criteria of making crucial decisions such as selecting candidates for polls — and they are allowed to get away with it. The inner space of the political party continues to be an area of darkness, off limits to the citizen and voter. Is it any wonder, then, that even as political participation goes up in our country, especially among the underprivileged sections, the political choice is rapidly shrinking. When there are no real choices to make, the act of voting is reduced to a negative act of voting out the incumbent.

It’s no use pointing out that Dynasty is a protagonist in most other dramas and abroad as well. In recent days, the selection of a certain 30-year-old university dropout, last name Murdoch, to run Britain’s biggest private media company, comes instantly to mind. There are no excuses, no alibis, for the delay in reinstating democratic norms and procedures at the centre of democratic politics.