Marriage has often been commended as a career move. Pundits say married people are richer, more successful and live longer than singles. A recent report from Washington said having a “reliable, organized spouse”, who is good with chores and money, makes it easy to scramble up the professional ladder. Clearly, our politicians weren’t part of the case studies.
From the very start, India’s leaders have marched to the tune of Ekla cholo re. Kamala Nehru had been dead for over a decade when Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi was married once, but single all through her reign as PM. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and APJ Kalam, two of India’s most beloved leaders, never did marry; and now we have Narendra Modi steadfastly striding solo.
Unlike the otherwise very individualistic United States, where political candidates have to hold up a spouse and kids even before their credentials to prove they’re qualified to run for office, we Indians don’t give a hoot about our leaders’ marital status. Nor do we associate stability with a spouse. Yes, we are obsessed with marriage, but only when it involves our own family, friends and relatives or the sagas we watch on TV and in films. In politics, we like our leaders single.
If any further proof was needed on this, the recent poll results have provided it. Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have brought back Jayalalithaa and Mamata—both strongly single-minded—to the game of thrones, much like Odisha has been doing with eternal bachelor Naveen Patnaik since 2000. From Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, 53 and never been hitched, joins the singularly powerful posse next week.
Compare this with the US, where James Buchanan is the only bachelor to be elected to the Presidential office. And that was in 1857, before the American Civil War! Britain puts a different twist to the tale. There, the Prime Ministers are mostly married—the last unmarried one was Edward Heath in the Seventies—but they don’t like to wear their marital status on their finger. David Cameron, and Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and John Major before him, are all known to go ringless. In fact, the last PM to wear a wedding ring was Margaret Thatcher; the last male to do so was Harold Wilson, who succeeded Heath at Downing Street.
Many of our leaders wear rings, but they come without strings attached. Staying single lets them spend long hours on the road without worrying about a clock-watching spouse. Two, they can do exactly as they please without anyone waiting to pull them up when they get home. Most importantly, in a country that’s had its share of family rule, no one can accuse them of favouring their kids. Indeed, Jayalalithaa’s single status gives her extra points over the dynastic politics of the Karunanidhi family-dominated DMK, and Patnaik has been known to actually assure his voters that there is no danger of his pandering to family as he has none standing by.
When our politicos are ready for female company, there’s always Ma. And when the public wants to hound a celeb about his or her nuptial plans, there’s always Salman Khan.