National Security
Politics as Family -run Business
Dt: 5/5/15
Politics as Family -run Business
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
In several countries of the world, a number of companies were founded by individuals in a family and many of them continue to be very successfully run with uninterrupted profits and a good brand name. Some of them have a history of upto a century or more. The largest number of family businesses are in India. Many businesses in our country are of late being specially studied by internationally famed business schools to find out what could be the factors for their longevity and phenomenal prosperity.
2. At the time of Independence in 1947 we had more than 500 hereditary princely rulers. We also had tens of thousands of zamindars who were also hereditary . Espousing the principle that no privilege, no power, no property should be hereditary and invoking principles of socialism and democracy, our political parties combined to abolish not only the princely states but even their privy purses that were constitutionally mandated to the princes. We abolished the zamindari system . In order to provide house sites ceiling to people flocking to the burgeoning urban areas, we introduced urban land and took away the house sites that were in excess of the ceiling that was legislated . All these measures were in the name of bringing down inequality and extending access to power and prosperity to those who have not been inheriting wealth and power.
3. But alas! we find that the political parties which championed this ideology of reducing inequality by removing the power and privileges of the hereditary classes have established a new variety of family profession, namely politics as a family run profession; in fact, business. Politics as family business was initiated in this country by Mothilal Nehru. Five generations of his have been inheriting supreme political power and now the Congress party, the oldest in India, has become the family business of the Nehru clan. The appellation Gandhi is a misappropriation . The husband of Indira Gandhi was Feroze Ghandy, a Parsi whose family business was pressing oil seeds for oil. With the marriage into the Nehru family by the blessing of Mahatma Gandhi, Ghandy became Gandhi, a mesmerising name . In business, goodwill is an asset and it is valued, monetised. This Gandhi name with the immense good will of the people is the single largest asset of the Nehru clan’s family business of politics.
4. The Bhagwadgita says that common people will do as the leader does: and also adopt those standards of conduct which are set by the leaders. Since the Nehru clan has built up the family business in politics, so are many politicians all over the country building up family businesses in politics by swearing sweet sentiments like social justice, socialism, secularism, inclusive growth, empowerment of the excluded and service to the poor.
5. In UP, Mulayam Singh , in Bihar Lalloo Prasad Yadav, in Tamilnadu, Karuna Nidhi, in Karnataka Deva Gowda, in A.P Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy ( Smt.Vijayamma, the widow and Jagan Mohan Reddy, the son ); Uddahv Thakrey son of the legendary Bal Thackery in the name of Shiv Sena; in A.P the TDP owned by family members of the late N.T. Rama Rao; Sri K.Chandra Sekhara Rao’s clan of the TRS in Telangana, Biju Patnaik’s son in Orissa through Biju Janata Dal, in Panajab Prakash Singh Badal and son Surendra Singh Badal through Siromani Akalidal , in Maharashtra Sarad Pawar through his daughter and other relatives in the Nationalist Congress Party, in Haryana INLD of Chautalas, in UP Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD) of Charan Singh’s family through Ajit Singh, in Kashmir the Shaikh Abdullah family owns the National Conference upto the third generation and the PDP of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed are all family businesses. In Tamilnadu, the DMK also is a family business of the Karunanidhi clan. There are three lady leaders each one of whom is a spinister and owns a party – Mamata Banerjee owns - Trinamul Congress in West Bengal; Jayalalitha owns the AIDMK in Tamilnadu and Mayawati owns the BSP in UP.
All these family businesses are doing quite well. Heredity is established. Control of the parties is totally in the hands of the head of the family .
7. It is a wonder that the family business which is held to be unique for India encompasses not only the traditional businesses but the latest profession of politics which has become a profession. This is feudalisation of politics and commercialisation of the populist ideology of service to the poor. If there are no poor, none of these families can thrive. That is why despite thirteen Five Year Plans, we still have the poor. The current exercise of populist politics is to keep the poor in painless poverty forever, so that by dishing out welfare, the pain of poverty is reduced. The bulk of welfare spending goes to build up prosperity of the family business in polities. That is how we find that the wealth declared by MPs and MLAs in successive elections is several times more than at the time of the previous elections. (822 words)