Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has criticized “dynastic” politics in India, calling it a “serious threat” to democracy and saying the time has come for the country to move towards meritocracy. In an article titled ‘Indian politics is a family business’ published on the Project Syndicate portal, Tharoor described “dynastic politics as a threat to Indian democracy” and argued that India should move towards “merit-based leadership”. This idea can be seen as a dig at the Congress high command and its India Bloc allies like Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Shiv Sena (UBT).
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In the NDA, Tharoor said his son Chirag Paswan has taken over from Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan. Now only two days are left for Bihar Assembly elections. Tharoor writes that from India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi to current leaders Rahul Gandhi and MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the idea that leadership can be a “birthright” in Indian politics has been strengthened. He made a direct attack on the Congress, saying that for decades, one family has dominated Indian politics. The influence of the Nehru-Gandhi family – which includes independent India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and current opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – is linked to India’s independence struggle history. But it has also reinforced the idea that political leadership can be a birthright.
He also hit out at Congress’ India Bloc allies over dynastic politics, mentioning Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aaditya Thackeray and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, son of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. In Jammu and Kashmir, he referred to three generations of the Abdullah family, and in Tamil Nadu, he emphasized that Chief Minister MK Stalin is the son of late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, and said the family “controls” the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party.
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In the NDA, Tharoor said Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan was succeeded by his son Chirag Paswan. He wrote, “The Nehru-Gandhi family is linked to the Indian National Congress, but dynasticism is rife in the political landscape. After the demise of Bijayananda (Biju) Patnaik – who was influential in the formation of the Janata Dal party – his son Naveen won his father’s vacated seat in the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament). Naveen later founded the Biju Janata Dal in his father’s honor and followed in Biju’s footsteps by becoming Chief Minister of Odisha state, which he served for more than two decades. Led.”