The nastiest thing about dynastic politics is the way inheritors take the people and party for granted. Their self-obsession is such that their divine right is deemed sacred and secure, beyond question. The only issues that need settling are either the timing and tactics in case of a sole heir or ‘heir’-splitting over power, in case of two or more. Needless to add, the original sin of emboldening the inheritor and encouraging their audacities lies with the patriarch, or for that matter, matriarch. What needs to be added, on balance, is that the inheritor may also play the Bhasmasura act on his blood benefactor!
While India abounds in political dynasties, the Cong and DMK, at the national and regional levels respectively, rank as the most prominent and practised players in this genre. Life in the country and State have over the last several decades revolved around the fate of the members of these political families that own the parties and often run regimes that determine our fate. The ongoing public spectacle in both these household parties, though not surprising, yet cannot be ignored. Alagiri and Rahul topped the charts this week as the heirs that loomed over their cherished heirloom, the party, in order to gain control. While Rahul quietly landed on centrestage without being formally named as the leader of the party henceforth, Alagiri, in contrast, refused to let go, even after being named an unfit candidate.
The rational tamasha on show in the DMK contains all the ingredients of a sizzling family potboiler. The soaps on Kalaignar TV or for that matter, any other channel, are no match to the daily dramas that happen in K’s house(s) and across Chennai and Madurai. Maybe, the famed reel script-writer’s plot went awry in real situations or probably, as some suspect, he is deliberately enacting the current imbroglio too, to achieve his end, whatever it is. But the household as a whole is abuzz with high intrigue and suspense over K’s heir-raising efforts and considering the size and numbers involved, that is quite a tonnage of thrills. And mind you, the ambitious nephews, who caused much blood-letting (of innocents’, not family’s) in May ‘07 are nowhere in the picture. Yet.
There may not be blood, so far. But there is something more ominous, an impending fatal heir-fall, that has triggered the current crisis. When Madurai’s dadagiri Alagiri was suspended last week, the official reason put forward was his continued anti-party utterances and activities. And now DMK leader alias father K has blurted out (or let slip deliberately, take your pick) that Alagiri said Stalin would die in a few months and he, K, as a parent could not digest such a statement. Of course, one can understand Stalin’s pain for no one would relish being the object of a death wish, particularly a brother’s. But two rational questions beg to be asked of the ultimate, never-say-die rationalist K: 1) How does a death ‘sentence’ about a brother, that understandably has hurt the father, constitute ‘anti-party’ activity? 2) Okay. Granted Stalin is K’s chosen heir, in a party wherein only heirs can grow. Still, how can a rationalist believe and act on such irrational and superstitious ‘heir’-die soothsayings and curses?
Oops, the rational logic beats even die-hard Alagiri critics!
Much has already been written in these columns about Cong’s apparent heir and his voice politics. Suffice to say that if Rahul is really serious about implementing his and exclusively ‘His’ plans for the party and people, he has to first remove himself from the scene, lock, stock and family. For it is after all, He and his clan that personifies to the last cell all that he claims is wrong in the system and seeks to set right. Minus the Mainos, the system would be rid of the most infectious and entrenched virus.
The sight of a doting mother clapping and cheering at the dumb and bland utterances of a propped-up son, as if in a primary school performance; the public outburst of an anguished dad at the prospective death of a son, predicted by a jealous sibling; the repeated assertions of a constitutional PM that he is just a regent keeping the seat warm for a prince-in-waiting; All this and more are the daily examples for decades of dynasties parading as democratic outfits. Indeed, who cares if Rahul has come of age and is ‘ready’ when his very presence is the problem? Why should it matter to partymen and people in a democracy if K’s progeny curse and clash with one another? Why should we swallow and stomach many such offsprings sprung on us by political parents who themselves have little confidence in them or are simply fed up at home?
Come polls, voters must surely brood over a few chosen families’ values!
e-mail the writer at [email protected]