Now, with five years in political doldrums, the loss of family rule has begun to haunt and hurt UP’s Yadav clan. And uncle and nephew have joined forces to take on the Thakur-Yogi—an interloper from outside the state foisted on the true-blue Yadavs of the Etawah-Mainpuri belt, almost a kingdom with a cultural capital of its own.

Yogi Adityanath is anathema to the Yadavs. Why? The Yogi has no clan to flaunt and—come what may—he lacks the sperm count to deliver a ‘warris’ to place him in the line of fire of those who have made it their business and careers to harangue dynasts of all kinds.

Even under British Raj, the subcontinent was made up of a 1001 principalities descending further to a million zamindaris. For the hapless people living under the yoke of dynasties was like breathing, a natural thing—inhale-exhale; inhale-exhale!

And we have been living under family rule for donkeys of years since what is called the ‘Independence of India, 1947’. Among the ruling dynasties/families have been freedom fighters and their descendants. There have also been ‘royal descendants’ of rulers who lost their privy purses but continued to pull strings in their fiefdoms.

Madhavrao and Jyotiraditya Scindia come to mind. The extended Scindia family had Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to expand their rule into democracy. Up north, at the height of India, there are the Abdullahs—milking dry the snowy tops for years on end and not liking it that things may have come to an untimely end.

The problem is Laxman’s common man is mostly dynasty-friendly. Even the most educated among Indians prefer to be led by the nose by a family scion. Let’s not talk of the Nehru-Gandhi family, they are of a different caliber. The Nehru-Gandhi family has set a threshold for potential dynasts, and it has been so for the last 75 years.

If there is the main Gandhi family tree, there is also the offshoot Gandhi family which produced Varun Gandhi s/o Sanjay Gandhi. For the BJP, the acquisition of “this Gandhi” was like a trophy. The trophy Gandhi son of a trophy Gandhi widow! Maneka Gandhi’s acquisition before the son was coopted—a two-up on the “hated Nehru-Gandhi family.”

Right, if anybody thinks the Bharatiya Janata Party is just political opponents of the NG family, that person is living in Iceland’s north—closer to the North Pole than he will ever be to the South Pole. Varun Gandhi is a placid guy, but quite often he reveals his affinity to the ravenous croc of Lake Placid and then there is no stopping him.

The point being made is the arrogance of family entitlement doesn’t fully slip with the dynast—it is just beneath the skin and erupts at the slightest provocation. The Mulayam Singh Yadav clan is the most prominent of new dynasts.

And after now, there is the Banerjee dynasty of West Bengal. There is nothing wrong if Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee follows her into the party. Of course, Mamata ‘Didi’ is grooming the nephew for the top posts in party and state. And from the looks of him, Abhishek comes out as an able guy who will make his place under the sun.

And like all of them—the “dynasts” on the subcontinent—every one of them, they have to go through the test of fire—get elected by the people of the realm in elections held after a fixed time span, again and again. Nehru, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi cemented their place by getting elected. If they became Prime Minister, they were chosen by their own parties.

This is where the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi lose the “dynasty” argument. Prime Minister Modi goes and meets Sheikh Haseena, a confirmed ‘dynast’, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and he has no complaints of dynasty. But he has a problem with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

For Modi, if he wants to bar Nehru-Gandhi family members from aspiring to become Prime Minister, he will have to amend the Constitution not just get tough on the topic in the Central Hall of Parliament on Samvidhan Divas.

While on that, he should also nip in the bud dynasties that are forming right under his nose in the Bharatiya Janata Party. Everybody from the Thackerays to the Pawars and Rajnath Singh, they are all in the same boat. All across India, there is a dynasty fever and it’s been on a high for decades and decades. Year 2022 is not going to put an end to dynasties ruling lives. (IPA Service)