Happy new year, Bihar

With his party leaders opposing the move, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav’s plans to anoint his daughter Misa Bharati as his political heir have reportedly received a setback. It may be safely presumed, though, that the setback is only a temporary one. Laloo’s writ has always been his partymen’s command. And in spite of reports of increasing dissidence within, of one Ranjan Yadav being propped up as dissident-in-chief and, yes, even despite the show of resistance to Misa, there is not enough reason yet to accuse the RJD of stirrings of democracy. In all likelihood, the coming year will witness the arrival of the Yadav family’s eldest daughter as Leader, all partymen’s objections notwithstanding. If all goes according to plan, Misa Bharati will inherit Bihar from her father, just the way her mother did before her.

Politician Misa is poised to join an old and growing band of Political Progeny. In the younger generation, there is Omar Abdullah s/o Farooq Abdullah, Stalin s/o Karunanidhi, Akhilesh Singh Yadav s/o Mulayam Singh Yadav… among others. Waiting in the wings in the new year are, notably, Priyanka Gandhi and Feroze Varun Gandhi who, needless to say, need no introduction. Intriguingly, while the Congress is constantly reviled for nurturing and subsisting on the politics of dynasty, other smaller parties guilty on the same count are usually let off much more lightly. It is true that India’s oldest party shows no signs of growing up and going beyond the Nehru-Gandhi family. But the fact also is that most of the outfits which were born of an avowed anti-Congressism have only ended up mimicking the Congress. These parties, like Laloo’s RJD, claim to address themselves to regional aspirations, they hold aloft the banner of social justice. To a large extent, they are seen to be part of a process of deepeningdemocracy. It is surely a piquant irony that the cause of democracy should be seen to be furthered by parties that have completely failed to institutionalise the democratic temper within. Parties that are ruled, no questions asked, by the imperious diktat of supremos who inevitably hand down to their kin their mantle and their fief.

On second thoughts, though, maybe the new year will be different from the old. Maybe there is hope, after all, in the resistance shown by RJD leaders to Laloo’s manoeuvres to foist Misa as leader. Maybe RJD leaders will continue to see Laloo Prasad Yadav’s attempts to catapult Misa to the top slot as an insult to their experience and acumen. Maybe Misa Bharati will have no easy ride to power. Just maybe, Laloo Prasad Yadav’s daughter will have to earn her political spurs before she can hope to be accepted as leader in her party. Or before she is voted for by the people of Bihar.