The Big Story: All in the family

Uttar Pradesh’s politics is in turmoil. On Thursday, Shivpal Yadav, brother of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, resigned as minister from the government of his nephew, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. He also quit as state party president, just days after he was appointed to the post by Mulayam Singh Yadav. To make things more interesting, the Samajwadi party general secretary and cousin of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, has come out in support of Akhilesh Yadav.

This is, of course, a serious matter in the largest state of the Union. However, the close family ties of the dramatis personae make this seem like a story from another age.

India is no stranger to dynastic politics. In his 2011 book India: A Portrait, historian Patrick French pointed out that every Lok Sabha member of Parliament at the time below the age of 30 had inherited his seat. For MPs under 40, two thirds were dynasts, owing their politics to a family member. In the current Lok Sabha, elected in 2014, at least one quarter of MPs are from political families. Even here, the Samajwadi Part is a leader: all five of its Lok Sabha MPs are relatives of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Why political dynasties exist is easy to see. Politics in India’s patronage-state is a lucrative profession. Unlike in many other nations, where the government distributes favour across the spectrum, in India, politics directly controls patronage in a semi-feudal set-up. This puts a lot of power – and money – in the hands of politicians. Naturally, politicians would want this money to stay in the family.

This, in turn, is buttressed by the fact that India’s parties have weak party structures. Although the Indian Constitution now recognises parties as legitimate centres of power under the anti-defection law, the parties themselves have little control over their internal process and no system of internal democracy. Thus family ties are a good substitute for actual party processes.

Finally, dynasty shows how Indian politics is increasingly becoming a closed club. Politics in India, given its eventual returns, is an expensive proposition. The current Lok Sabha is the richest ever: as many as 82% of its members have assets in excess of Rs 1 crore.

Like financial capital, family capital is another way to access Indian politics. However, the fact that a person without access to either of these two advantages can never hope to participate at the high table of Indian politics is an unhealthy sign for Indian democracy.

The Big Scroll

  1. More than half of India lives in states dominated by dynasties

Political Picks

  1. Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested human rights activist Khurram Parvez.
  2. The United States has refused to back the Modi government’s moves to make Balochistan's independence an issue.
  3. The Union government has attempted to dispel the West Bengal government’s fears that the new web-based Public Financial Management System will compromise the independence of the states. 

Punditry

  1. In the Indian Express, Jyoti Malhotra points out that while the current Ministry of External Affairs is great at organising big events, there is a lack of organised follow through.
  2. The Supreme Court’s judgement in the Singur case is a victory for the rule of law, and the constitutionally-protected rights of citizens, says Namita Wahi in the Hindustan Times.
  3. In the New Statesman, historian Tom Holland argues that modern Europe's values such as human equality arose not from the pagan cultures of Greece and Rome but from the philosophy of Christianity.

Giggle

Don’t Miss

Ispita Chakravarty reports from South Kashmir, where protests change shape from town chowk to bylane to village field:

“Tumhaarii maang ke madadgaar America nahi hai, China nahi hai, India nahi hai [The supporter of your demand is not America, not China, not India],” said the man at the microphone. “How will these killers help you? Your only help is Islam. Muslims of Kashmir, if you want freedom, sometimes you will have to take bullets, sometimes you will have to take pellets, sometimes you will have to go to jail.”

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