Family parties not good for democracy

Family run parties are not at all good for democracy. In fact they are a threat to democracy. In family run parties, decisions are taken by a single person heading the party. There is no collective decision making or leadership in them. The interests of the family will remain the prime concern in them.

In parties like the BJP, and Communist parties, there is no ‘family domination.’ In India, the leaders heading family run parties are interested only in their children taking over after they retire.  There is no recognition of other leaders in these parties. Despite having abilities many leaders fail to make it big in family run parties and are confined to second rung leadership.

For instance, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav is the son of former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav. Similarly, J&K CM Omar Abdullah is the son of earlier CM Farooq Abdullah. The same is the situation in DMK. Former CM Karunnidhi’s sons and daughter are aiming for the top post and are engaged in a bitter battle to do so.

In the TRS, KCR’s son and daughter have entered politics and are in line to take over after their father quits.  But in the BJP anyone with talent can rise to any level. Mr Modi is a classic example of this. He comes from a poor family, and used to sell tea at railway stations. Despite this, he became Gujarat CM and now is the PM candidate. Can we expect this in any other party?

Though one may argue that a family run party like the Congress made outsiders like P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh PMs, everyone knows that it was the ‘foreign origin’ of Sonia Gandhi and the age of Rahul Gandhi that compelled her to do so, but the government is fully controlled by her. With Rahul now crossing 40 years, the Congress has again become a family-run business, and is trying to make Rahul the next PM.

In our state, BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu is a classic example how one can make it big in parties which are not run by families. He comes from a remote village without any family or political background. But he became the BJP president. This is the beauty of democracy.