BJP high priests abdicate crown to Queen, family

Me, I have a distaste for dynasties in general and a special distaste for dynasties that emerge out of political parties which claim to believe in democracy. But, in recent days, I have been forced to change my rigid stand because I have been forced to acknowledge that democratically elected dynasties have become the defining characteristic of Indian democracy. As a wise old politician pointed out to me in a recent conversation, ‘‘Except the BJP and the Marxist parties, every political party has become a family firm’’. This is true from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Mufti and Mehbooba, Farooq and Omar, Badal and son, Mulayam and son, the various father and son political firms of Haryana, Laloo-Rabri Inc, Bal Thackeray and sons, and at the Kanyakumari-end, Karunanidhi and sons. So how can we object any more to the Congress being run like a family firm?

My other and more important reason for withdrawing my objections to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is that I am now convinced that they are the only ones who can rule India. Somebody has to, and if you look carefully at the political landscape, you may notice that there is nobody else.

Where there once was a saffron splotch that represented the political party that claimed to be the true guardian of Mother India, there is now an empty space, and by September 26, if the Government does not fall as predicted by an astrologer called Babaji, then that space is going to grow bigger and emptier. The Bharatiya Janata Party is on the verge of disappearing in a puff of saffron smoke. Its only strategy since it lost power in May was to put its hopes in mantras and magic and pray that an aged astrologer was right when he said that Dr Manmohan Singh’s government would not survive the Ides of September.

Towards this end, there has been much rabble-rousing in yatra mode and some nefarious plotting. In those murky corridors of power has been afloat a rumour of unhappiness in the Karunanidhi family firm and this has caused the BJP to prepare to support (from the outside) a government led by George Fernandes with Karunanidhi and Mulayam as his deputies. Fantastical though this may sound, it has been discussed seriously at high levels of the BJP because the yatras have failed to rouse the masses, the disruption of Parliament has met with the disapproval of the classes, and the news that the two aged ex-leaders of the nation believe in astrology has made even camp followers nervous.

Atal Behari Vajpayee and some of his more sensible colleagues appear to have abdicated from their role in public life. As one of their colleagues described it, their condition is a sort of ‘‘transcendental depression’’. At party meetings, they stare gloomily into the distance or gloomily at their feet and utter not a single syllable. So the speaking is left to Venkaiah Naidu who, if articulation is a pre-requisite of public life, should have been disqualified at entry point. The number of people who say the BJP loses their vote every time they see Venkaiah’s mug on television increases daily. Is the party in such bad shape that they cannot find a single person who can speak articulately in one Indian language?

As for political strategy, it seems to be left entirely to the Charioteer, so everyday we hear of some new chariot ride, some new attempt to rally the masses, and it’s not going to work because even the most ardent street fighters need a few months after a general election to put up their feet and recover.

Meanwhile, as this column has pointed out before, there is a long list of serious issues that the Government should have been put on the mat for. Manipur, Kashmir, flood relief, starvation deaths, farmers’ suicides, confusion in economic and foreign policy, and the fact that we are still not sure who rules us, the Prime Minister or Noorjehan of Number Ten. Oh, oh. Old habits die hard, but believe me when I say I am now a supporter of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. I still think that political parties should be political parties and not family firms, and still believe there should be no place in a democracy for dynastic succession, but if I want to continue being a political columnist, I must become more flexible, more adjusting, because I can see Rahul’s children and their children and maybe their children ruling India.

write to tavleensingh@expressindia.com