The family tree has the most gardeners in Indian politics. It’s the inheritors who make up the upper caste of populism, enjoying its fruits. Dynasty is a unique caste with a difference — a novel category of reservation in public offices for the progeny of rich and powerful in institutions and organisations. Dynasty demands no legislative legitimacy. Historically, genealogy is the lifeblood of feudalism and monarchy. Business and commerce were dominated by kith and kin until markets replaced monarchies with money.
DNA never passes its sell-by date because it’s already been purveyed to the moonstruck masses by the patriarchs and matriarchs of political dynasties. D-tag is a premium brand with maximum marketability. Ivy League institutions are no longer power pandemic prescriptions. The best qualification for getting a powerful job in any sector is the dynastic certificate. Caste brings additional weightage to suitability. Royal dynasty is dead. Long live the new dynasty based on caste, class and community.
Flaunting the name of papa or mama is enough to provide priority access to centres of power and to facilitate trouble-free control of institutions beyond scrutiny. Spheres from politics to sports, entertainment to business, culture to NGOs and even the habitats of gods are owned and managed through bloodline connectivity rather than merit. Business has lost its monopoly as the only arbiter of dynastic succession. Politics and sports have become the easiest targets for familial acquisitions and mergers without making investments. Over 70 per cent of India’s sports organisations are run by the sons and daughters of politicians and businessmen. The alchemy of dynastic affiliation is so golden that even the highest intervention in judicial laboratories has failed to dull its sheen.
Last week, 37-year-old Chirag Paswan acquired full control and ownership of the Bihar-based Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) after the untimely death of his father Ram Vilas Paswan. Sons are the only ascendant in the zodiac of regional political outfits floated by a caste satrap or a regional raja. Political succession in Dalit-based LJP was as smooth as in any business entity. Chirag plunged into politics after his unsuccessfully brief stint in Bollywood.
Ironically, his father as a former socialist was one of the strongest critics of dynastic politics. Yet, he ended up promoting his son even more brazenly than others. In Indian politics, caste-based reservation has been converted into yet another preserve of the Progenitor Principle. Chirag’s elevation as the new Numero Uno is not an exception. His rise is part of an acceptable tend in most parts of the country. After all, Paswan Junior is one of the 30-odd political families who control over 60 per cent of the elected posts in India.
The national parties are no exception. According to a study, over 20 per cent of their office bearers are sons, daughters, sisters, wives, daughters and sons-in-law as MLAs, MPs and heads of other elected bodies. In fact, top posts in all parties from the Congress and regional parties are dynastic perches. The Gandhis, Karunanidhis, Pawars, Chautalas, Badals, Yadavs, Abdullahs have politics in their genes.
After politics, it is business that sets the tone for the domination of the dynastical model in Indian society. Families have always dominated the Indian business universe. When economic reforms came along in the ‘90s, India was expected to broad base the ownership of big businesses so that non-family meritocrats can also own a part of flourishing enterprises. The liberal economic policies enabled the middle class to invest in the stocks of companies that consolidated their control after collecting money from the market.
Though India is an around $2.5 trillion economy, over 80 per cent of its wealth is owned by just less than five per cent of business clans, which have chosen dynastic succession as their most profitable management model. While the original promoters worked hard to create a successful business entity, Gen Next took over immediately after returning with foreign degrees from elite universities. The only choice given to shareholders was to elect these offspring as successors. Paradoxically, public listed companies are the most effective vehicles for the perpetuation of dynasties and their affluent sustainability. The public is expected to bear the losses created by the incompetence of dynasts in many cases.
Since dynastic institutions aren’t subject to public scrutiny, it uses might and money to keep others out of the competition and entry in the system. The saga of Sushant Singh Rajput, a film star who committed suicide, has been projected as the barbaric misuse of dynastic power in Bollywood. Not that all the film actors have become mega super stars through paternal or maternal patronage. The excessive domination of few clans over the Bollywood cosmos supports the perception that heredity matters. Those who aren’t part of the Chromosome Club have to do something plus or extra to get a foothold in the family-controlled entertainment business.
There are many more other unseen areas where dynasty affiliations play important roles. In the top civil services, the offspring of senior officials are able to enter IAS, IPS and IAS, thanks to their parentage. Surely most of them became administrators purely on merit, though many questions about the selection process have been raised due to progenitor presence.
There’s a joke about Amar Nath Verma, former principal secretary to Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. Around twenty of his close relatives, including his daughter, were IAS officers holding crucial posts in the state and central government. There are numerous other examples of the sons and daughters of IPS and IFS officers getting into the service. A similar trend is visible in the selection of officers from the SC/ST categories.
With genes and not merit becoming an essential prerequisite for the control of institutions, India will soon witness a war between dynasties in almost every sector. Like in the past, ancestries with the might and backing of the state will inevitably eliminate the others who lack a godfather. India becoming a democracy and economy being ruled by dynasties looks like a real possibility soon. Perversely, lineage is now the fifth pillar of democracy. This pedigree power play will weaken the foundations of the nation, which was projected to enter the 21stcentury untainted by the brood. Instead, it is degenerating into a kith and kin affair, which could take the nation far behind even the 11th century.
Prabhu chawla
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
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