India is the largest democracy of the world. But do the political parties of the largest democracy support internal democracy? No! Most parties in India are private limited companies owned by families and being lead by second generation politicians or in some cases the second generation politicians are waiting to take over the reins of the party. Yadavs’ Samajwadi Party, Thackerays’ Shiv Sena, Lalu’s RJD, Badals’ Akali Dal, Patnayaks’ BJD, Abdullahs’ National Conference, and the list goes on.
No no, I didn’t forget Congress. Congress is the Godfather of dynasty politics in India inspiring other regional parties to follow the model. The oldest political party of India was hijacked by Jawaharlal Nehru who either finished off his competitors (like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose) or overshadowed and suppressed them (like Sardar Patel).
Jawahar Lal Nehru turned the party into his private company with the right to lead going to his offsprings. First Nehru and then Indira made sure that they are the unambiguous owners of Congress with all other smaller leaders allowed a certain degree of freedom to rule and loot under their noses as long as they keep bowing their head to them.
Congress has got a track record of putting non-Nehru Gandhi leaders into oblivion. Remember Sitaram Kesari, P V Narsimha Rao etc. More recently, there used to be Jyanthi Natarajan? Someone remembers her? She dared to utter few words against Gandhis. See, what I mean. The gang of Nehru-Gandhi loyalists sacrificed all the leaders just to keep dynasty alive.
From the oldest political party to the latest political party aspiring to be a national party. A party who captured the imagination of many who were tired of the corruption by the Dynasty controlled party. Even though Aam Aadmi Party is a relatively new party, but it’s Supremo Arvind Kejriwal has regulated his party in a ruthless way, kicking anyone and everyone out who dared to differ with him, let alone question him.
A person who came into power on the promises of doing different politics has gone wrong on the first hurdle itself. He’s guilty of promoting the Supremo culture in the party. Arvind Kejriwal has kicked out the people who had equal role in establishing the party as himself. Arvind is surrounded by his own set of slaves who keep flattering him. No one dares question him for the fear of getting kicked out. Aam Aadmi is slowly and surely getting moulded into a newer version of Congress with Kejriwal as its supreme leader.
Do you know any other party who doesn’t have all this? Yes, Bhartiya Janata Party is the only democratic party in India.
From Vajpayee, Advani, Joshi to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, party has been blessed by leaders who came from the grass root levels and reached the top of the party. So, why are these leaders different from the leaders in other parties?
Can you name any significant leader ever thrown out of party for questioning any leader of the party? Narendra Modi is a person who comes from a humble background and rose to be the biggest leader of the largest political party in India. Even after such an overwhelming success in Elections and with such a big clout in party, he never threw anyone out of the party.
Every now and then Advani gives a statement to media that goes against party line. Never has Modi or any other leader uttered a word against Advani. More recently Arun Shourie and sitting BJP MP openly revolted against Modi and BJP for their personal reasons. Even then, we are still to hear a word from Narendra Modi’s mouth against these leaders.
If these people were in any other political party, they would have been breathing the last breaths of their political carreers. Any grass root worker of BJP can aspire and work his way to the top of the party. Can the same be said about other parties? That is why BJP is today the only democratic political party in India.
