The beti-beta brigade

Perhaps it has something to do with the BJP becoming more like the Congress, specifically the Dynasty They Knocked, every day. First they borrowed the Dynasty8217;s Closest Friend8217; Amitabh Bachchan to shake a leg for Kargil in cities as diverse as Srinagar and Mumbai. Then they uprooted the Dynasty8217;s Second Best Friend, Arun Singh, from his hillbilly existence to pick his brains. They didn8217;t balk either at enrolling farmhouse psephologist Arun Nehru to stand in the Dynasty8217;s one-time preserve Rae Bareilly. So it wasn8217;t long before the BJP took over the dynasty idea completely.

Or it may have everything to do with politics becoming like showbiz 8212; if Akshaye Khanna can follow his father into filmdom, is there any reason for him not to campaign for him, even if Vinod Khanna8217;s idea of campaigning is to gorge on whisky and chicken tikka? It8217;s ironic that the more the business of politics becomes professional, thegreater the involvement of the family. One constituency in Maharashtra, Sangli, has three star sons vying with each other: Chiman Dange from the BJP, Madan Patil from the Nationalist Congress Party and Prakash Patil from the Congress.

It is perhaps symptomatic of India8217;s ability to live in several different eras all at once. If each party is looking at professional public relations agencies and competitive bids by advertising agencies for its campaign, it is also not ready to give up on Family No. 1. Which is why when anyone now says things such as Omar Abdullah being just his father8217;s son or grandfather8217;s grandson, there is little to say with Mehbooba Mufti being the rival candidate. It doesn8217;t have to be the children. Those who can8217;t wait for the offspring to grow up are happy to deploy the spouses. Whether it is Bharatiya nari behn hamari Sushma Swaraj whose husband Swaraj Kaushal is an effective campaign manager so effective that even his driver has been instructed to spell out his name forreporters or desh ka neta Laloo jaisa whose wife is a conveniently docile chief minister, you can be sure that all the aides are tried, tested, and trusted in the domestic arena.

If you8217;re like the Prime Minister, who is both asur tuneless and not a sasur father-in-law as he announced at a cassette-release function in New Delhi last Sunday, you can adopt a readymade family. The bachelor premier8217;s foster son-in-law, Ranjan Bhattacharya, travels with him during his campaign and looks after his every need 8212; from meals to medicines.

It8217;s not just because of our feudal mindset, though surely that helps. It is also because of the nature of our politics, in these elections more than ever, which have been the most personality-driven in recent times. When there is an absence of issues to focus the mind, is it any wonder then tat attention strays towards the 8220;leader you can trust8221; in war and peace and the woman who in R.K Dhawan8217;s words was Indira Gandhi8217;s daughter-in-law and RajivGandhi8217;s wife.

Perhaps this fascination for family has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with charisma. What explains the status of the Kennedys in the US, underlined by the national outpouring of grief over the sudden death of John F. Kennedy Jr, a man not distinguished for either his intelligence or business acumen? Or even what explains the undying determination to inquire into Prince William8217;s life? Surely, it has more to do with his famous last name 8212; it helps if it is the name of a castle 8212; than it does with his loveboat looks.

It is true that in the East it has been easier for the family to enter politics, whether it is Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan or Aung San Suu Kyi, despite the junta, in Myanmar. But then no one should forget that the sociologist who gave the theoretical underpinning to the phenomenon of charisma was a modernist German Protestant, Max Weber.