The bloodless coup against Chirag is not unique but such internal strife demeans politics itself
When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry, said William Shakespeare. Ram Vilas Paswan, eternal Dalit leader and pater familias of the Paswan family, would have had no qualms agreeing with the English bard. A father and son ganged up against the son of another father. The father and father are both brothers, their brood, first cousins. That in short is the bloodless coup that happened in that Bihar political family the other day, stripping Chirag Paswan of his position and power in his own party, the Lok Janshakti Party. Five of the party’s MPs have formed a separate group led by Chirag’s uncle and supported by his nephew. Chirag remains the lone MP, a victim of dynastic arrogance or political naivete. The how and why of what happened is of academic interest when the moot point is how family feuds and dynastic intrigues have straddled Indian politics from times immemorial. They were understandable in times of monarchies, but in democratic India? The Nehru-Gandhi family has had the dubious distinction — unless circumstances went against them — of having kept leaders unrelated by blood from the apex position — the party president. There is hardly any political party in hardly any State today that is not headed by a family. The tradition is derisively called dynasty politics. What is problematic of such arrangements is that the party, its politics and relationship with people and power is determined by the internal strife within the family. That demeans politics itself.
The schisms and the backstabbings, strangely but consistently, are timed to happen before major political happenings, like an election, a leadership change or a Cabinet reshuffle in a State or at the Centre. It is said the Paswan saga was brewing for some time — the young man apparently oblivious to all of it — coming to a fruition just as rumours of a reshuffle in Delhi picked up. Not dissimilarly, other family feuds are changing tack, more for the better than worse unlike the Paswan affair, in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The Mulayam Singh Yadav family is closing ranks, the patriarch trying to patch up differences between his brother Shivpal Yadav and son Akhilesh Yadav which spoiled Samajwadi Party’s image in the State. The family of undivided Andhra Congress leader YS Rajasekhara Reddy is trying to expand its influence into Telangana as well. While YSR’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy “rules” Andhra Pradesh, his daughter Sharmila Reddy will form a party of her own in Telangana. The “overlord” of Telangana, K Chandrasekhara Rao, is already trying to keep peace between son and political heir KT Rama Rao and nephew and organisational wizard T Harish Rao. These family pots can overflow anytime even as Karunanidhis of Tamil Nadu, Pawars of Maharashtra, Bangarappas and Deve Gowdas of Karnataka await the next chapter in their family sagas.
