The Mighty Banyan of Indian Politics: Democracy, Dynasty and the Roots of Rebellion

 **14 June 2003**

 

Democracy means freedom of choice, availability of options, smooth flow of alternatives, free and fair process of the transfer of power.

The orchard where as many flowers of different views can blossom and prosper as possible under the natural conditions.

Do we come across any such system in the world?

No.

We have just crude caricatures of the god-like ideal social entity.

We have to accept that if we find the system as defined in its political terms at the upper landing of the staircase, long and winding, of governance, then we find ourselves hopelessly stuttering, slipping, falling at the bottom step.

The machinery of democracy is bogged down by the renegade impostors, bugs and worms of the evils of the past systems.

Has monarchy, with its traits of absolute power, unquestionable loyalty and brutal repression of dissension, completely vanished from the face of Earth?

Certainly not.

The germ persists.

Our very own Congress is a shiny example of the survival of these strong traits across different genres of governance.

Call forth for the fundamental quality of a Congressman and you will surely get taunted with undisputed, untrammelled, unquestionable loyalty to the Gandhi-Nehru family.

I would even term the family as the modern version of monarchy, even though they return to power at intervals, ruled through variants from the path.

But it indeed is the royal family of India, a modern dynasty whose fate was politically concretised by the talented, educated, rich, enterprising Nehru—Motilal Nehru.

Now there have been successors, heirs to the throne. A legacy, like any other royal family, has been formed, sacred and inviolable.

It proudly shines with its lines:

"We brought you freedom. We have shed our blood for you. We put you on the path of modern India."

So proudly it wants the teeming millions to raise their consenting thumbs in its favour.

And so deep is the foundation that even a lady of Italian origin is accepted as the saviour of the grace of Mother India.

Yielding power from the central level to the local level across various hierarchies, the Congress functionaries are as high and as low in proportion to their blindness, caused by the blisteringly shining star of the mother—the new mother, a brave new mother with foreign initials.

It is a mighty banyan, this Congress, over the political ground of India, with its central trunk, all anciently romanticised, carved with the intricacies of history and literature, and the aerial roots loyally taking root over a vast area around.

But no root, however firm, dares to declare its own independent status.

The ownership of the tree lies with the central trunk.

All the rest are merely side-supporting subsidiaries, and the mammoth banyan grows profusely.

The lady grins with the central trunk crowned.

Across the chinks in the foliage—for they are bound to arise, given the predatory hold of the tree over a larger area—some undergrowth scampers to reach the height.

But these are the necessary evils of democracy.

So we have chunks of regions overgrown with rebellion and undergrowth.

Here regional satraps enjoy their seasonal, not periodic and certain, sojourn.

This strong pedestal of this otherwise indefatigable banyan may be perhaps shaken a bit more worryingly by the new crop—Mayawati.

She eats directly into the sap and juices of the little miseries which Congress has victoriously harnessed for six long decades.

Maybe in future the mammoth banyan will wither a bit, will decrease in size on account of this feeder blockage in its roots.

Majority gained by Mayawati in the UP Assembly elections is sufficient reason to believe that the soft, tiny undergrowth of Dalit resurgence under a new banner will spread over a lot more area, thus belittling the banyan of its unquestionable sheen and shelter for the poor, Dalits and minorities.

Perhaps the loyal sway of the first family will be diluted in the coming decades.

But it is too early to say about the demise of dynasty.

I see at least one, if not the boy, but a girl, more Gandhi ascending the highest political throne.