Articles
Parivar Vaad ( Kutumba Vaarasatvam)
Dt: 12/12/24
Parivar Vaad ( Kutumba Vaarasatvam)
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
In the times when kings ruled countries and zamindars had land estates, sons succeeded fathers to rule the country and enjoy its wealth bequeathed . Often they were advised by wise ministers and managers. Now royalty and zamindaris are gone. We have democracy famously defined by Abraham Lincoln (b. 12 Feb 1809 – d. 15April 1965), the 16th President of the USA ( 1861-65) as “ government of the people, by the people, for the people”. The people elect the “governors” – in India, MLAs, MPs, members of Zilla Parishads and Mandals who in turn elect the Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, Chairmen of Zilla Parishads and so on. Political parties put up candidates for election to different governing bodies. In theory, the best candidate is elected. No person or his progeny succeeds the once elected person. All this is very fine in theory.
2. In Bharat the selection of the best by election has gradually been given way to what is picturesquely described as Parivar Vaad ( Kutumba Vaarasatvam) - the leader being succeeded by a family member.
3. The initiation of Parivar Vaad started with the Nehru clan – Motilal Nehru (b.6/5/1861 d. 6/2/1931) was the Congress President in 1928. He desired that his son, Jawaharlal (b. 14/11/1889 d. 27/5/1964 ) should succeed him as Congress President during his lifetime itself. Mahatma Gandhi’s help was sought. The provincial Congress Presidents wanted Sardar Vallabh Patel as President for 1929. Lord Rama, Gandhiji advised his Hanuman, Sardar Patel to withdraw in favour of Jawaharlal. Patel withdrew; not for the first time but two times more, in favour of Nehru, as per dictates of Gandhi ji !
4. Jawaharlal made his daughter, Indira Priyadarshini (b. 19/11/1917 d. 31/10/1984 ) President of Congress at age 42 in 1959 five years before his death. Indira Gandhi made her son, Rajiv Gandhi General Secretary of Congress in 1982 at age 38 . Rajiv Gandhi (20/8/1944 d. 21/5/1991) assumed the Prime Ministership in 1984 on the assassination of his mother in Oct 1984.
5. Rajiv Gandhi’s (Italian) widow, Sonia Maino (b.9/12/1946) grabbed the Presidentship of Congress from Sitaram Kesari in 1998. And since then the Indian National (?) Congress has become the property of the Indo-Italian family of mother, Sonia Maino, son Rahul, and daughter Mrs. Priyanka (Nehru, Gandhi) Wadra ! Motilal – Nehru was thus the promoter of the Parivar Vaad - not Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel or Rajendra Prasad or Sanjiva Reddy or Tanguturi Prakasam or Bhogaraju Pattabhi Ramayya or C. Rajagopalachari, all Congress stalwarts .
6. The Parivar Vaad beneficiaries currently, besides the Indo-Italians are: K. Chandra Sekhar Rao (KCR), son K T Rama Rao, daughter Kavitha, nephew T. Harish Rao in Telangana ; Sri Chandra Babu Naidu, son Lokesh in AP ; Karuna Nidhi-Stalin-Udayanidhi in Tamil Nadu, Lalloo Prasad Yadav, wife Rabri Devi, son Tejasvi Yadav and daughter Misa Bharati in Bihar; Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav in UP; Mayavathi and nephew, Akash Anand of BSP in UP ; Mamata Banerji and nephew Abhishek Banerjee in West Bengal .
7. These are paaramparika, parivarika politicians, business-men; lawyers, doctors , teachers. All but parivarika politicians are those who are distorting an d degrading democracy . The political parivaris are setting on hordes of money. In Andhra Pradesh another Parivar was emerging since 2004 to 2009; 2019-24; its wealth is inestimable; so it is above law - it is surviving two Chief Justices of the Supreme Court ; eight judges of a CBI Court – this parivar’s wealth is its shield and armour.
8. Jaiprakash Narayan, J B Kripalani, N G Ranga and Com. Puchalapalli Sundaraiah , all great leaders in their parties decided not to have children to avoid son-stroke/ Parivar Vaad.
9. Democracy in Bharat has come to have a new character- Parivar Vaad; just as “socialism with Chinese characteristics” in communist China.
10. The Nehru-Sonia family is the exemplar of Parivar Vaad. In the states too we have Parivar leaders at different levels. Exceptions are Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) and the dozen communist parties ( with suffixes in brackets). The BJP is so far largely free of Parivar Vaad; though it is incipient in some states among the former royal families. Democracy degenerating into neo-feudalism is its Indian characteristic.
Tail Piece: “If my mother-in-law, my father-in-law and my wife too are MPs, why not I too and my son and daughter become MPs” - guess who is this person. ( 735 words)
END