Hereditary Politics in India

PATRICK FRENCH in an interview to a magazine recently, while commenting about his new book said,

…..”I was quite surprised by the results when I did that survey of the Lok Sabha. I did not expect the data to be so overwhelming—the  fact that, for example, every MP under the age of 30 is hereditary. I don’t think it’s a bad thing having political families in any democracy. The problem really is the scale of what is happening. For instance, the quite inspiring grassroots leaders who came up in the past—certainly in the Congress—would have no chance of winning a ticket for a Lok Sabha seat now. You have this ironic situation where democracy is deeply entrenched and yet, at the same time, for the top reaches of certain parties, you have to be the son or daughter of an existing leader in order to get anywhere.”

And still Rahul Gandhi often gabble about the new line of leadership which has its inspiration and roots in youth of this country. He talks about the how youth should participate more in the party affairs. For what? As they know success in the politics is more about the family affiliations, godfathers, and hereditary genealogies rather than hard work and merit.

Politics is not a career in this country as there is no level playing field in here. Why do people shy away from entering the politics? Why is there a dearth of political talent in this country of overflowing academic talent?