In a recent book , India - A Portrait by Patrick French, the author estimated that almost forty five percent of the candidates for elections are from dynastic political families.Unlike Pakistan and the Philippines were the seats are held by families who are from the land owning classes, in India it is from families whose main business is politics - or as they say in Hindi "Netagiri". To quote Shakespeare completely out of context , in India the inheritors are "born great ,( instead ) of achieving greatness or having greatness thrust upon them".
A few weeks ago , we were glued to the television following the state legislature elections in five of the states in India. In order of importance they are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttrakhand, Manipur and Goa. The national ruling party Congress was in power Manipur and Goa. The main opposition party The Bhartiya Janata Party ruled Uttrakhand and played a supporting role in Punjab. In Uttar Pradesh the ruling party was a lower caste dominated party Bhaujan Samaj Party. The main media focus was on Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
In Uttar Pradesh you had Rahul Gandhi - Rajiv Gandhi's son and Indra Gandhi's grandson , on one side and Akhilesh Yadav , son of Maulayam Singh Yadav - head of the Samajwadi Party and a former Chief Minister of the state on the other. In Punjab you had Sukhbir Singh Badal,son of the Prakash Singh Badal head of the Shiromani Akali Dal, the reigning party, leading the campaign against the Congress leader Amarinder Singh, the former Maharaja of Patialia, who was the previous Chief Minister of Punjab.Interestingly Rahul, Akhilesh and Sukhbir received part of their education overseas.
The Samajwadi Pary won in Uttar Pradesh and the Akali Pary in Punjab. Congress had used its big guns in Uttar Pradesh, one of the largest states in India with a population of two hundred million people, but had little to show for it. It retained Manipur and managed to dislodge the BJP in Uttarkhand. It lost in Goa,and Punjab.
In my opinion what won the election for the Yadavs and the Badals , was that they had a better sense of how to capture the votes. Also what was interesting in the campaign in both Uttar Pradesh and Punjab was the difference in styles of campaigning of the privileged inheritors and the message they put out.
For the last two years the media was fed images of Rahul Gandhi visiting the lower caste families and sharing their meals in Uttar Pradesh. In the last few months, he appeared increasingly comfortable in giving speeches in Hindi. However he came across as a strident , angry young man with his main target being Mayawati and occasionally the Yadavs. He was ably supported by his sister Priyanka, who appeared much more at ease mingling with crowds than he was. His brother in law Robert Vadra also joined in the campaign with his group of easy riders.
Akhilesh on the other hand criss-crossed the state, occasionally seen on a bicycle ( which was the party's election symbol) or on top of a van, wearing his easily identified crimson red Gandhi cap. He appeared more of a people's man and appeared more relaxed in his dealings with the common man , compared to Rahul Gandhi who was constantly surrounded by his group of minders. Gandhi focused on the misdeeds of the previous rulers while the Yadavs promised a basket full of goodies, ranging from free laptops to free electricity for farmers.
In Punjab the Badals and the former Maharaja both come from extremely privileged backgrounds, but at the end of the day the Badals prevailed, as they had a better sense of how to win the votes. Like the Yadavs, the promise of goodies got them the votes. Where the money is going to come from considering the perilous conditions of both the states finances, appeared to be of least concern while making the promises.
Historically it is the incumbent party which gets voted out . Here again Amarinder Singh focused mainly on the mis-deeds of the ruling party instead of laying out an agenda for the Congress Party. While generally the media tends to view the rural electorate as being unsophisticated, what was interesting this time around in Punjab compared to the previous elections was that the incumbents ( although in Uttar Pradesh , the Yadavs were not,they were in power prior to that ) were not voted out. The rural electorate decided that in terms of mis governance there was not much of a difference between the Congress or the Akali Dal. So they opted to stay with the Badals and take the freebies.
What the Congress party strategists seemed to have overlooked by focusing on the mis-deeds of the opposition, was that almost every day the news papers and the television channels were headlining some scams, scandals or the other involving the the Congress Party or their coalition parties. While you have many Congress party big wigs who appear regularly on the television debates showing how erudite they are by quoting Yeats and other English poets and Churchill, they seemed to have forgotten that votes of the viewers of the English speaking middle class in the metropolitan cities do not determine who comes to power. India now has multiple news channels in almost every language which can now be viewed in most rural areas.In addition they also forgot the simple rule which applies to good governance as well as to being a good neighbor - people in glass houses should not throw stones .
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