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. 

Demo - crazy?

So, the AIADMK has won a clear majority in the TN Assembly elections. As an ex-newsreader at Jaya TV, I must admit I am pleased. No more speeches about the 'minority DMK government' and its monstrosities that go on for pages and pages on the teleprompter, that has made even the most loyal party man/woman groan in boredom.

But more importantly, I am pleased because the big family has been doing some major levels of damage all over, sucking the country dry of currency. 2G being just one atrocity in a huge bale of hay. I mean, see the obvious, most visible industry of all. The three movie production houses, two of which were not even formed five years ago, raking in crores, because distributors were scared shit less to say no to the prices demanded, and when they did out of self preservation, then another arm of the family itself started distributing the substandard entertainment they were putting out, transferring the burden of debt and suicidal thoughts one step down the ladder, to theatre owners.

Threatening a rich a-list actor who stubbornly keeps away from award functions and making him attend one to prove political might? Seriously? What were they thinking? When the actor proved that he had a spine and spoke about it to a live audience, immediately, using plausible deniability, they were saying 'we had no clue that people were using our names to make you come here', and 'We will look into this disaster, accept our apologies' to save face.

Highways are nasty all over the state. Emergency response for accidents are a joke here. Public schools have no standards to measurement, and the teachers there are apathetic to their students' needs, the list is endless in all spheres under governance. But, one hears things about how big the house of a certain Chennai based MP is. He has gates from his property directly opening into four important lanes in the Adyar boat club area. His house takes up an entire block in other words. Phone lines- BSNL phone lines routed, numerous lines, to his house, and were used for the office purposes of the family's television channel.

Everyone wonders why a minister, unconnected to the family was allowed to make off with lakhs of crores? Think again. The said minister and one female family member were supposed to have been lovers. Whether that rumour is true or not (It is big secret- which is that everyone in TN suspects it- no publication will say anything other than hint around it), it begs several question - why would a non-family member be allowed to take a huge chunk of the spoils? What do they have on him that they know he will not betray them? and If there was such a big loss to the government - how can it ever be recovered? And what kind of internal family politics has led to the female being made the 'fall woman" when clearly if there were to have been benefits from the scam, it would all have been shared in proportion?

So, coming back to Amma, clearly, no matter what AIADMK says, it was a case of voting out the DMK than the need to bring any one specific party in. But,if people had voted randomly to promising independents or small parties with clearer agendas, they know what will happen. If the opposition party had not been voted in with a majority, the DMK would have found ways to bring in all the victorious independents, and the small small parties to its side, with money or threats (Just thinking of the Madurai arm of the party makes people quake int heir boots), and formed the government again. So, the need to elect AIADMK with a clear idea to kick out the reigning party.

What will happen in the next five years, I wonder. Clearly, there will be corruption. But how much and how obvious will it be? Bad enough to vote the DMK back in? Or will Amma keep a lid on how much her ministers and MLAs are looting? Will fulfilling all their election promises within a year and a half- as she has promised be enough to keep the people in line for the remaining three and a half years? ( Many people, on hearing this 1.5 year promise hoot with laughter. Because the state treasury is supposed to be empty. Since it was emptied by the DMK for unnecessary park building, new assembly building constructions- with expensive fake and real roofs, while the old one is perfectly functional and a historical landmark to boot,  lining the pockets, building fancy libraries, instead of reinforcing infrastructure of existing libraries. Anyway, since the treasury is very low on resources -Amma will be going to visit Mr. Pranab shortly is what I predict. Just watch.)

Anyway - If the public remembers- they usually don't - in 2016- will the vote be in DMK's favour? Or will they vote in the DMDK - Vijaykanth's party- because the AIADMK is going to do exactly what the DMK did and earn ill-will in the next five years? Will Vijaykanth, with all his newbie-ness in politics, be seduced by the crores of public money he can take for himself, or try to be true to his hero image - of goodness, moral uprightness and all things incorruptible? Time will tell. It is going to be interesting to watch in any case what the next five years will bring.

But - Does any one politician care for the welfare of the state? Will there ever be a person with nothing but development of the state in mind? Someone who started like Chandrababu Naidu in Hyderabad, but also maintained steam till the end and distributed his/her efforts all over the state instead of just the cities? I wonder, I wonder.