Political Dynasties Of India
58India is ancient civilization which has seen many kings and kingdoms since thousands of years. Later Britishers took over the land and India came under rule of the queen.
After Independence India became parliamentary democracy where people of country elect their representatives in parliament which in turn decide who would be prime minister of India.
With time Indian Politics has become family owned entity with exceptions of BSP , Communist and BJP. Here is list of political dynasties of India. List might keep on increasing with passage of time.
Nehru-Gandhi Family :
It all started with motilal nehru entering into politics. He was one of prominent voices in congress till mid 20s .
After him his son jawaharlal nehru became one of most powerful voices in congress.Mahatma gandhi selected him to become prime minister of India as his personal wish even though 13 out of sixteen state representative wanted sardar patel to take charge as prime minister of India.
Jawharlal took oath as first prime minister of Independent India and remained tallest leader of India till his death , since mahatma and sardar had long died.
Nehru was prime opposer of dynasty politics but little did he knew at that time that seeds of dynasty politics had already been sworn by his daughter entering active politics.
Once nehru was gone , shashtriji took over but he soon died and Indira was made prime minister of India .This was begining of political dynasty of nehru-gandhi clan which prevails till date.
Sanjay gandhi became active politician and was considered to be successor of Indira gandhi. Sanjay died in crash and after death of Indira gandhi , rajeev gandhi took over. Rajiv was killed in suicide bomb attack . His wife sonia gandhi declined to become part of politics but she returned after few years to take charge of congress. Her italian birth proved hurdle in her becoming prime minister but she selected Dr manmohan singh for the post. Dr manmohan singh is currently serving second term as prime minister of India.
Sonia gandhi is congress president and chairman of colation . She remains most powerful woman of India while her son rahul gandhi is expected to become next primeminister , provided congress is able to win another election whcih would be held in 2014.
Nehru-Gandhi family is most powerful family in India and their collective terms as prime ministership has been around 35 years.
Thackeray Family :
Bal thackeray formed regional party called shivsena. Maharastrian party shivsena too has become family owned party . Uddhav thackery (son of bal thackeray) is party chief while his cousin ,dejected from being unable to become successor of bal thackeray formed him own party in named of maharashtra nav nirman.
Hardline party shiv sena has time and again been in news for agitations against film personalities like shahrukh khan or slamming of sachin tendulkar. Last sania mirza came under firing lines of this party.
Mulayam Yadav & Family :
Samajwadi party has brothers of mulayam and his son akhilesh firmly placed in the party. Akhilesh is mostly expected to take over the party , once mulayam decides to retire.
Lalu Yadav & Family :
None of lalu's offsprings are active in politics but when lalu had to go to jail , he made sure that chief minister seat is well preserved for the family. He made his wife chief minister of bihar.
Karunanidhi & Family :
What is most important ingredient about Indian colation. Well you can't form one without karuna nidhi. He is superemo of DMK party which has strong hold in tamilnadu. He is presently chief minister of that state. Once he is gone battle of succession is expected between his two sons.
For time being he has handled issue by making his younger son deputy chief minister while his elder son cabinet minister in center.
Thank You so much for the History lesson of India. Keep up the good work
it is high time our election commission and courts take note of it. This is now affecting the basic structure of constitution. So surely courts can interfere in it and devise some guidelines to have internal democracy in each party and ask election commission to strictly enforce it. Is there some lawyer who can file a petition in courts?
@soumyasrajan
well these parties have so called internal democracy..at least they follow guideline of having party chief elections and such things..but it is mere formality..since election commission wants parties to have election for party chief , parties have to undergo the procedure..
I do not think they follow even partie's constitutions and traditions. Just look at Congress party. I remember in my childhood in Congress even local members used to have a drive every year to increase memberships of the party (this was the time when practically every one in India thought it was natural to be in Congress. This was because of Gandhi's influence and propagation of fairness, which had still not died down even though he was not there for years- membership in Gandhi's time used to be 25 paisa (4-annas)- a famous sentence of Gandhi is "I am not even chvanni chchap member of Congress". Still they used to try to get more members). Their hope was that new members will elect them to All India level Congress party as a delegate. It was these delegates who used to frame program and elect executive members etc. Now mostly they are nominated by top or imposed by top without any elections. One more example is that Prime Minister Indra Gandhi was elected in an election by Congress MP's when she became prime minister first time. It was not a nomination. Other parties also followed similar norms. Look at now for years we hear that an incapable guy like Rahul Gandhi with very little experience will be Congress karta dharta or even a minister or prime minister. They should be reminded of traditions their nani had followed in the beginning every day by media and press. But media and press prefers to remind us every day with useless news about him that he is our feudal lord of one of the biggest parties and may be whole country. Where are the visible elections in parties - which you are seeing?
Destruction of all such traditions started in Indira Gandhi's time and is continuing even now in whole of India and most parties.
Result is visible much more in Bengal. Is there any other example in world where proper elections have been held and the same party or group has been in power for thirty years? Leave election in parties are there really proper elections held in the State of Bengal in violence driven atmosphere with left oriented politics? Even election commission is helpless and directionless and gets threats from marxist parties when ever it talks of reforms. Our media and press and implementation machinery is still under the influence of such destructive forces started by Indira Gandhi and such left (or right)oriented politics and associated violence. Let us hope we wake up and get out of it.
People say biharisation of politics to degrade unnecessarily Bihar. But destruction of wealth of the state, democratic traditions, feudalistic tendencies in politics, parties etc. really started from CPM led rule in Bengal and now other states have taken over in much worse way. Among the cadre based parties which matter now you see essentially only BJP. Even that seems to be directionless in following norms and traditions and style of our country.
All this can change in no time if based on basic ideas of our style constitution and traditions, proper guidelines are issued and enforced by courts and election commission.
One should analyze it properly and write a hub about it. May be I will do it some day if not others. See for example idea of primaries in USA (it may have flaws but does show possibilities). One guy former election commissioner Mr. Seshan had shown that a determined official can do a lot. We do not need much.
jite 2 years ago
The elder son of Karunanidhi never face question hour in LokSabha.These Parties dont have democracy within the party.The party supremo runs the party like a pvt company,no other party member can speak against the supremo.