I have never understood why any Indian political party always talk negatively about the other political parties. Agreed that all the political parties will have different ideology but apparently all the political parties show that their first priority is public’s welfare. So why do they spread too much negativity about other political parties. Instead they should pick up good points about other political party’s ideology but it never happens. Are the political party’s talk of people’s welfare is a just a sham,actually the real motive is different. Barring few parties like BJP and Communist Parties, all the other political parties in the country believe in dynasty and they do not have inner party democracy. Let us see the history of few major political parties:
- First and foremost Grand Old Party of Indian Politics ie Congress- The party which was fore most in India’s freedom struggle apparently never believed in inner party democracy and always believed in personality cult- if it believed in inner party democracy then Sardar Patel would have been first PM of the country, but Gandhi happened to thrust Nehru as PM and Sardar could never say no to Gandhi. Nehru in his life time tried to groom Indira Gandhi for becoming PM, which she eventually became some 20 months his death. Indira was very shrewd lady who broke the Congress party in 1969 as she never wanted to be controlled by old guards, and took over the rein of the broken party which eventually broke again in 1979 and after that she became the undisputed leader of the Congress. Indira first started grooming his younger son Sanjay but when he died in plane crash, she forced his elder son Rajiv into politics and after her assassination Rajiv became PM in 1984, because till that time Indira had made all congressmen spineless and the congressmen willingly accepted Rajiv as PM. When Rajiv died in 1991 the situation was so pathetic that congressmen did not know where to go, and once again with folded hands they knocked the door of Sonia Gandhi(widow of Rajiv) to lead Congress, which at that time she refused but she agreed to lead congress in 1997/98 after the leadership crisis with PV Narsimha Rao and Sitaram Kesari. Now after 18 years at helm of the Congress party she leaves her throne for her son Rahul Gandhi. So Congess was the first party who broke inner party democracy and promoted dynasty politics.
- Samajwadi Party (SP)- This party was floated by Mulayam Singh Yadav in late 1980s, that time he was anti Congress and Pro Socialist(follower of Lohia and Jaiprakash Narayan) primarily to dislodge Congress from power in UP, which he did successfully . Later he forgot his anti Congress stand and joined hand with Congress and he became cabinet minister when UPA led by Congress came to power in 2004 at centre. He tried to play major role in national politics but his following was always in UP. His brothers, nephews also followed him into politics and they were suitably rewarded with assembly or parliament seats. In the later stages he started promoting his son Akhilesh and when SP won the majority in 2012 UP elections Akhilesh became the CM of UP. But just before the 2017 UP elections, to stem the march of BJP in UP , Akhilesh made alliance with Congress against his father’s wishes, SP lost the election badly.
- Rashtriya Janta Dal(RJD)- floated by Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar, like Mulayam he was also from Socialistic back ground. But when Laloo was implicated in fodder scam in 1990s and was forced to resign as CM, he made his wife CM, who could not sign even her name. After that for so many years Rabridevi(his wife ) was CM of Bihar. To save his skin in 2000s he started siding with Congress and even became cabinet minister like Mulayam in UPA ministry in 2004. In 2013 when Nitish Kumar broke with BJP, his party gave support to Nitish to remain as CM and in 2014 Bihar elections he formed alliance with Nitish and when the alliance won the election he made his one son as Deputy CM and other son as state minister in Bihar assembly. Presently he is in jail after being convicted in fodder scam and Nitish has broken alliance with his party and now BJP is again supporting Nitish.
- Shiv Sena- floated by Bala Saheb Thackerey in Maharashtra. The party is mainly concentrated around Mumbai city and certain part of Mahrashtra. For almost 3 decades they are in control Mumbai Municipal Corporation. From 1994 t0 1999 Shiv Sena along with BJP as junior partner even ran the govt in Maharashtra state. Before the start of new century Bala Saheb was being assisted by his nephew Raj Thackerey but suddenly he inducted his son Udhav Tahckerey into politics and made him Executive President of the Party. This move was not liked by Raj and his follower and after 2 years he left Shiv Sena and formed his party. After Bala Sheb’s death relationship between BJP and Sena Soured and they fought last assembly and Mumbai Municipal elections separately( alliance was broken after 3 decades). Now situation is such that Sena is junior partner in state govt with BJP, and in Mumbai Municipal Corpn BJP is supporting Sena, although they have only 2 seats less than Sena. At centre Sena is part of NDA. But at both state and centre they always oppose BJP although they are part of govt.
There are other parties also like Nationalist Congress Party( NCP), Biju Janata Dal(BJD), DMK, National Conference(NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) and many more regional parties, who only believe in dynasty politics. about them in my next blog.
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