How to reject Dynastic Political Entrants ? Part - II aka Lessons from Delhi

 The case of Rahul Gandhi

I do not know why or how the political acumen in the Gandhi Family has watered down, but it clearly has. Now, Jawaharlal Nehru is being criticissed for a lot of his decisions, but hindsight is 20-20, meaning we have the data of several decades to see which of his policies were successful and which were a total waste - but he didnt. Within whatever data he had and the comparisons he could reasonably make, he made policy decisions the merits of which that are even now being debated by the BJP which wants to completely do away with the Congress ruled years and the legacy Nehru left behind. But his political acumen as well as his daughter's was definitely on the nose. They had the eye on the ball and were excellent players in the political arena. One could say that they had no competition, and maybe that was partly an issue in Mr. Nehru's time, but by the time Mrs. Gandhi came to power, it was definitely not the case. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, was also competent in the political arena, but served only one term and was assassinated before he could fight to get back to power. 

But Rahul Gandhi has been completely sidelined before he could really come into his own.  There was a motivated trolling machinery committed to branding him "Pappu" and labelling him inept and generally a bumbling, incompetent teen who doesn't even deserve a seat at the adult dinner table, much less, in the power corridors of Raisina Hill. And this strategy has worked for the BJP in the 2014 elections and every early mis-step on his part was blown up beyond it deserved and this strategy has been continuing to work in their favour by taking on a life of its own. This manufactured image is so ingrained in the popular psyche now that no one can look beyond the Pappu tag and take the fellow seriously, so much so, he seems to have given up leading at the centre in the Congress has has taken to a walking trip about the country lasting months! 

The rise and rise of the CM sons : How can you send back to the benches that nepo candidate who is being favoured for posts and portfolios beyond those better qualified and better experienced??? 

1. Don't vote for them? That sounds easy - lets do that. Except the CM's son will not stand for election in your constituency. His father knows where to field him as we saw in the previous post. He will become a MLA one way or the other. And in 10-15 years time he will be ready to take over from his father and then Udayanidhi's son/daughter will become CM of Tamil Nadu another 40 years from now. 

2. See above note about Rahul Gandhi. Now, there is a lesson in all this for those committed against nepotistic politics. If enough resources are committed to this, any opposition party can dig up enough dirt for a disinformation campaign, cancel campaign, negative branding exercise, a trolling campaign and whatever the latest social media strategists come up with. And given that the BJP has done it on the national stage, they could easily scale down their process with targeted campaigns to brand the upcoming political heirs in each of the major regional parties - as doofuses, idiots, mumblers and bumblers without giving any of them a chance to sink or swim on their own. And maybe it is a good thing given that their fathers have considerable long term resources to sink into their heirs - and only those with a spine, very good political acumen and strong motivation to succeed politically or the ability to get themselves first class chanakyas as advisors can rise above the character abolishing trolling campaign that can and will be mounted against them. 

How to reject Dynastic Political Entrants ? Part - I

 Now, in the film industry in India, be in Mumbai or in Chennai or in Hyderabad, if a star kid enters the film industry and lacks that special something that makes a star, he or she gets sidelined after a few continuous flops. Examples include - Tushar Kapoor, Jacky Bhagnani, Harman Baweja, Tanisha, Shamitha Shetty, Rinkie Khanna etc. They gracefully slide out of limelight, or resign themselves into acting in secondary characters or move into other professions successfully or sometimes unsuccessfully depending on their education, training, social networking skills (the real world kind- not the online kind) and a big dose of luck. 

But in the politics industry, somehow or the other, the son/daughter somehow clings on to the political industry and makes a living someway or the other until finally the power wielding parent dies, and the party functionaries "clarion" call the "heir" in all the media to come forward to lead the party. This is the format in all the regionally powerful parties and was the same in the centre as well, until the advent and sad reality of Rahul Gandhi. In Maharashtra, in AP, in UP, in Bihar - if the CM's son/daughter is not automatically crowned as the heir due to whatever reason (No natural leadership instinct, Other powerful senior leader is chomping at the bit, CM wants the kid to learn the ropes from the bottoms up, etc ) - they eventually do become the heir to the power in the party. 

The major difference between the two industries is the nature of the game. Movie industry success depends on movie to movie - and the number of other careers that are broken/made in the process of the star kid's flops and hits. But politics is about the long game and several strategies can be played at once - it's not a friday to friday game-changer. And politicians play at the longest game of them all. (See the average age of Chief Ministers across state-lines. Sigh)

The reason for all this above rambling is the current news that the son of Mr. Stalin, CM of Tamil Nadu, previously actor and producer and now MLA is going to be given a ministerial position tomorrow. Now, there is at least one or more better qualified with managerial expertise or several people with more experience and who have served in the party far longer than the son. Compared to when(age at which) Mr. Stalin ascended to the "Throne" and all the hoops he hasn't been asked to jump through like Mr. Karunanidhi made Mr. Stalin do, obviously many people within the party are miffed - but aren't speaking about it. The people outside the party are saying aplenty and the political opponents are basically screaming their heads off about nepotism. To no avail. Because there is no rule/law violation in this instance. Any MLA can be given a ministerial position after all. (And the father with the political clout and know how will surely field his son in a constituency for elections which is a sure shot win for their party.) Just because Mr. Stalin is making his son a minister in his government above so many others better qualified and experienced is just in bad taste. You can't fault someone for bad taste or sue them for acting in bad faith. And so the opponents have to try other tactics. 

Everything takes longer to cook in Bangalore.....especially if you moved here from the coast

 Are you from a seaside town? Cochi, Trivandrum, Mangalore, Mumbai, Chennai or Vizag? You might even be from the plains up north - like from Lucknow or Patna - and then you have moved to Bangalore. And you're wondering why cooking takes so much longer here. Even milk takes longer to boil, and given that this is a repetitive task which you do at least 2 times a day or more, it gets super annoying. 

One the perks of Bangalore is the great weather (or so they would have you believe) and that is partly because it is situated on the Deccan Plateau - at 900 mts above sea level -that is almost 3000ft above the place you just came from. It's even situated higher than Dehradun. No wonder people are flocking here from all over the country- Good (mostly) roads, great infrastructure, plenty of new market jobs and most importantly, its much cooler than the other cities mentioned above :-)

But the same height above sea level that gives the cool weather also makes cooking a pain in the ass. Every 1000ft above the sea, the pressure drops about 1 bar. If your vague physics lessons come to mind, they would tell you that pressure and temperature vary directly with each other. Pressure drops and the boiling point of all the liquids you are trying to boil drop. It sounds like a good thing - but it really isn't. Boiling point drops!

But because it is colder weather, it takes longer to heat the liquid - like water and even milk.  When the boiling temperature is reached, the liquid starts to boil away happily - but the excess heat you're still giving the vessel goes towards making the liquid into steam/vapour and not into cooking your food effectively. Hence cooking takes longer. Stupid physics and stupid thermodynamics!

So 1 litre milk that should take 2.5 - 3 minutes to boil, takes 5 minutes boil. One cup rice takes 10 minutes longer to cook and even super processed maida based pasta cooks later. Welcome to Bangalore, ladies!!!!

Best solution : Pressure cook everything you can !