Sonia Gandhi's arrival in India's political life has made "Dynasty" theunderlying theme of Election 1998. With Priyanka and Rahul flanking her at meetings, the message is very clear: the Gandhi-Nehru clan is here to stay.(The real debut, however, was made by Priyanka Vadra. Her body language, the Tamil or Hindi she spoke in Sriperumbudur or in Amethi and the public response to her should be a cause of worry to the non-Congress parties - and the younger Congress leaders.)In India, the right of the son/daughter to inherit the political mantle of the father is taken as given. The examples are many.Family rule is not limited to the Gandhi family. It pervades the entire political spectrum. But a closer scrutiny shows that dynastic rule is easier in parties which have one leader who is considered supreme. This is more true of the Congress and the regional parties, and less of the BJP or the Janata Dal where there is more leaders than one at the top.The first family of the Congress let other leaders topass their mantle down to their kin, be it son, daughter, wife or brother as long as their leadership was not threatened. The sons of P V Narasimha Rao, Arjun Singh, S B Chavan and K Karunakaran are already old hands in Congress politics. Margaret Alva, K C Pant, Sidhharth Shankar Ray, Shiela Dixit - all belong to political families.The phenomenon is equally pronounced in regional parties - be it the Shiv Sena's Thackeray family in Maharasthra, Badal's son Sukhbir Singh coming to the fore in Akali politics in Punjab, the clout of Bansi Lal's son Surinder Singh or Devi Lal's son Om Prakash Chautala in Haryana, a beleagured Laloo Yadav anointing his wife Rabari Devi in Bihar or Urmilaben taking over Chimanbhai Patel's mantle in Gujrat soon after her husband's death. And now the third generation of the Abdullahs, Omar Farooq, has come forward in Jammu and Kashmir. In Mulayam Singh's Samajawadi Party, there is brother Ram Gopal constantly at his elbow wielding influence in a quieter way. Mayawati became theChief Minister of UP in the first place because she was considered Kanshi Ram's "cheli".In the South, there is the NTR clan in Andhra Pradesh, fighting to claim the legacy. In Tamil Nadu, a tussle is on between Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin and nephew Murasoli Maran. Jayalalitha got the better of Janaki Ramachandran because she was viewed by people as M.G.Ramachandran's successor.The BJP and the JD have comparatively fewer such examples. There is the Scindia family with Gwalior Rajmata Vijay Raje Scindia and daughter Vasundhra Raje (with Madhavrao Scindia in the Congress), and the likes of Vijay Goel, son of Delhi Assembly Speaker Charati Lal Goel, who is contesting for the Lok Sabha from the capital. The JD too is getting infected and Ram Vilas Paswan's brother has got a Lok Sabha ticket in Bihar. Former Prime Minister H.D.Deve Gowda's sons have been in the State Assembly and in Parliament.However, no other family arouses the strong reaction that the Gandhi-Nehru parivar does. It has ruledIndia for 40 out of 50 years, and now the fifth generation (from Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv now to Sonia followed by her children Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi) is getting ready to takeover. It has had a pan Indian appeal. The appeal of the other families has been limited to States. The Nehru-Gandhi family has been both revered and hated. Revered because they are viewed as rulers by an India which still believes in the "Rajas" in a different garb. They are opposed for the same reason by the other India which after 50 years of democratic functioning finds it difficult that one family should have the inherent right to rule in an independent country.That is why it was the family's style of functioning as much as their acts of omission and commission which provoked resentment in people from time to time. The denial of access (Sonia Gandhi's refusal to meet the press is part of the same thing) and keeping Cabinet Ministers waiting for hours are some of the things which reflected anattitude of a ruler towards a subject.Dynasty is not a dirty word in South Asia. The subcontinent may have accepted democratic forms of governance but it has a long way to go in changing a mindset which continues to be feudal. It is this mindset which accepts a woman as a leader if she belongs to a certain family but does not encourage women in politics.The Gandhis in India, the Bhuttos in neighbouring Pakistan, the Bandaranaike family in Sri Lanka, Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh continuing the political line of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and one or another member of the Koirala clan in Nepal, all bear testimony to the acceptability of the right of the family to rule.
