By Sushil Kutty
When Mamata Banerjee made nephew Abhishek Banerjee TMC’s general secretary in June of this year, they said she was following in the footsteps of ‘Behan’ Mayawati, who had appointed her brother to an important post in the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mayawati, a spinster like Mamata, clarified that her brother was doing it ‘pro bono’. Apparently, the brother was not bachelor-for-life like BSP founder Kanshi Ram.
The Congress and Samajwadi Party cannot say that for themselves. How can anybody be a ‘dynast’ if that “anybody” has stayed bachelor or spinster? ‘Behan’ Mayawati and Mamata ‘Didi’ had to settle for brother and nephew. It’s got to do with ‘legacy’. Even spinsters want to have the satisfaction that their ‘dynasties’ will not die with them, and there will be somebody to tell bedtime stories of them and their glory to descendants!
Lalu Prasad Yadav is a ‘dynast’ of the old order. He didn’t want to leave anything to chance. So, there were nine offspring to take his dynasty into charted waters. Now, there is the squabbling duo, Tejaswi and Tej Pratap, the favoured and the outcast, so to speak, a la Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb. There was also the time when wife Rabri Devi followed Lalu to CM-ship. That was ages ago. Now Lalu can’t call out for anything, but he can’t also let go of legacy before he cashes in his chips!
Farther west, Akhilesh Yadav did an Aurangzeb on papa-netaji Mulayam. But there was reconciliation and, today, the father and the son understand each other although the “barather” in the dynasty, Shivpal Yadav, can’t stomach the easing of the rumbling and the grumbling between the father-son! The fact of the matter is, these are ‘desi dynasts’ and haven’t picked up the niceties and the graces of the line like the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has exemplified over the decades since Independence.
The Nehru-Gandhis can take pride that there has never been a rift in the NG dynasty, ever. Succession has been smooth like the Ganges in the Great Plains. Brothers Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi didn’t have a problem on who would succeed, nor does Rahul and Priyanka have. There was nobody to challenge Indira Gandhi because she was a woman alone. Now, the NG has branched into the ‘V’ and, for sure, the next one in line will have to be of the Vadra blood. But that is not going to stop the NGV dynasty.
Narendra Modi and the BJP can try to stop, as they are doing now, and like they will keep trying in the years to come. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will use every occasion and platform to drive home the point that dynasty is bad for India and he will not wait for the counter to sink in before he is slinging mud on dynasts in general and the NG dynasty in particular.
He did it in 2014; he spoke of it in 2015. And now, just the other day, he spoke of the bane of the dynasties in his Samvidhan Day speech in the Central Hall of Parliament. In fact, there is this sneaking feeling that the Modi Government started “celebrating” Constitution Day from 2015 on just so that Narendra Modi gets at least one day in the year to vent against the NG dynasty with all the venom he has saved for them in his heart.
That can’t be. That will amount to too much scheming in one person. And no one, not even Narendra Modi, can hold so much hate for the NG dynasty a.k.a ‘Family’. How about the people of India, does the ‘public jo hai sab jaanti hai’ hold a grudge against dynasties, NG dynasty in particular?
The answer is a tight slap delivered backhanded! Whether it is the Abdullah dynasty of J&K, the Badal dynasty of Punjab; the Mulayam Yadav dynasty of UP, the Lalu Yadav dynasty of Bihar; the Thackeray dynasty of Maharashtra or the DMK dynasty of TN, people everywhere chose them to lead again and again.
The NG dynasty at the centre of it all has always managed to secure the confidence of the people of India. And it doesn’t matter how much is spoken of against the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, the fact of the matter is ‘Hindustan ki Janata’ do not mind dynasties ruling them so long as there is roti-kapda-makaan and these days, 24/7 wifi and broadband and Netflix. You saw it during the lockdown amidst shortages of oxygen and beds. People died like flies in Delhi and elsewhere and there were bodies floating on the Ganges! But did anybody blame any of the dynasties? No. (IPA Service)