Articles
Rulers Corporation of India (Unlimited)
Dt:30/7/21
Rulers Corporation of India (Unlimited)
Dr T H Chowdary*
In 1967 or so I wrote an article with the title, “Rulers Corporation of India”. It was published in Swarajya edited by the great intellectual and statesmen Rajaji ( C. Rajagopalachari). Rajaji and Prof. N G Ranga complimented me for writing that article. Surprise was that disregarding principles, indulging in moral turpitude and unethical behavior politicians have been changing their parties. One may be elected for the party which is not in government. A few weeks or months afterwards he joins the party which has formed the government. 1967 was famous for the Ayaramas and Gayarams. Samyukta Vihyak Dals also were formed in a number of northern states to keep Congress out of power but they fell very soon as the spoils of office were not available to every aspirant.
2. Now, the regional parties are treading the same path as in the Ayaram- Gayaram era. The main reasons are: first ,to get the perks of belonging to a ruling party; second, in order to save themselves from investigations of corruptions and acquisition of wealth disproportionate to their known means of income.
3. Once Rajaji wrote that many Congress- men have no ostensible means of livelihood. Therefore they could be prosecuted under some section of the Criminal Procedure Code as vagabonds and put in jail. There was an uproar in the Lok Sabha. Congress- men moved a privilege motion and wanted to prosecute Rajaji. Spirited speeches were made denouncing Rajaji. He should be called before the BAR on the Lok Sabha to be reprimanded or punished, they insisted. Nehru rose and replied, “Rajaji’s remarks at this stage are only allegations but if he is brought before the BAR of the Lok Sabha, he is going to prove what he said , “Many of you will be in trouble”. The motion was dropped.
4. In the years 2012 & 14 I wrote another article “ Feudalization of Indian Politics”. In that I showed how prominent politicians are establishing dynasties : firstly the Nehru - Gandhis; following them Karuna Nidhi and several others . Now they are joined by Sri Chandra Babu Naidu, Sri K.Chandra Sekhar Rao, Mulayam Singh Yadav , Lalloo Prasad Yadav and Mamata Banerji, not to speak of Sarad Pawar and lesser people. The Indian National Congress has now become proprietarised by Sonia family as an inheritance of the Nehru’s .The mother is the President, the daughter is the General Secretary and the son is the prime leader of the party. In AP, the glorious TDP founded by the late legendary N.T.Rama Rao (NTR) has now become the property of Sri Chandra Babu Naidu who deposed NTR in 1995 from Chief Ministership. He is now styling himself as “National” President of the TDP and his son, Lokesh is the “National” General Secretary of the TDP. How it a national is left to be guessed because it does not exist in any state excepting AP and nominally in Telangana. Even in Telangana its tall leader, Sri Revantha Reddy defected to Sonia Congress and its President, Sri Ramana has now defected to the TRS, the Rulers Corporation in Telangana. Mamata Banerjee is the “National” President of the Trinamul Congress and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee is now designated as the “National” Secretary of the TMC. TMC has hardly any presence in any state other than West Bengal. The Islamist party, AIMIM has the third generation successor of an Oweisi as its President. In Tamilnadu, the DMK is also proprieterised- Stalin succeeded Karunanidhi and his son, Udaya Nidhi is MLA, to inherit his father’s leadership in due course.
5. Recently, in Telangana one Minister was dropped from the TRS. First he said it is discrimination against BCs. The charges against him are that he amassed wealth including fraudulently acquiring assigned lands ( government lands given to Dalits with a condition that they cannot be sold to any) . He now joined the BJP, the ruling party in the Central government which has weapons for investigation and prosecution. To save from their actions, persons out of power are defecting from their parties and joining the ruling parties whether at state level or at the all India level.
6. The reason is governments have become obstreperous. They cover every aspect of life of people and their businesses. If you are a Minister or an MLA of the ruling party, you have advantages for acquiring wealth and avoid investigation and prosecution. The more the government, the more the opportunity for making wealth by joining the ruling party. If you are a person non-grata in the state’s ruling party, you join the party that is ruling at the Union level in Delhi which is different from the one that is ruling in the state.
7. Unlimited ever expanding government feudalization of politics, propriterisation of political parties and Rulers Corporations are the outcomes of politics becoming profitable business with government money distributed as charity, for the welfare of the poor and for “ social justice” . The initiators of this process were none other than Sri Jawaharlal Nehru and his father. Motilal Nehru who pleaded with Gandhiji to make Jawaharlal Nehru the President of the Congress to succeed him (Motilal in 1929). The Congress was wanting Sardar Patel to be the President but in deference to the old man Motilal Nehru’s entreaties Gandhiji asked Patel to withdraw and Jawaharlal Nehru became the President. Jawaharlal Nehru saw that his daughter, Indira became the President of Indian National Congress during his life time. And Indira Gandhi took Rajiv Gandhi as the General Secretary of the Congress by withdrawing him from Indian Airlines where he was working as a pilot. After the death of Rajiv Gandhi ,Sonia Gandhi went into hibernation for some time but in 1998 she grabbed the Presidentship of the Congress party by pushing out the simple Sitaram Kesari. Since then, that is from 1998, the Presidentship of the Congress is her family’s possession . This example of “familification of parties” is now the accepted practice of almost all regional parties besides the Sonia Congress. The exceptions are the BJP and several communist parties. (1,016 words)
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