“The influence of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty… is bound up with the history of India’s struggle for freedom. But it has also cemented the idea that political leadership can be a birthright…” — these words written by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor have given fresh ammunition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just before the assembly election in Bihar.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla saw the article as “a direct attack” on “nepo kids” Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD.
“Wonder what repercussions will follow against Dr Tharoor for speaking so candidly,” the BJP leader further wrote in a post on X on Monday, November 3, sharing a screenshot from the article written by the former global diplomat Tharoor on opinion portal Project Syndicate on October 31.
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Tharoor, who hasn’t been on particularly good terms with his party for a while now, has mentioned other than the Congress too in his article, though his piece happens to not mention the cases of alleged nepotism in the BJP.
He lists the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty by name from “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”.
In a bit speaking of leadership in particular, he says the sense of entitlement in such cases is so powerful that it can overshadow a poor track record, “enabling dynasts to remain at the helm of their parties despite successive electoral defeats”. T
he Congress led in effect by Rahul Gandhi has been losing most elections it has fought since Modi’s ascendance in 2014.
Tharoor, who lost the Congress presidentship election to Mallikarjun Kharge in 2022, argues that Indian political parties are “largely personality-driven (with a few exceptions)”.
The MP from Kerala terms dynastic politics “a grave threat to Indian democracy”, and asserts that only fundamental reforms such as “meaningful internal party elections” can help.
“Leadership-selection processes are often opaque, with decisions made by a small clique or even a single leader – figures with little interest in rocking the boat. As a result, nepotism generally trumps meritocracy,” he writes.
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As examples of family-run parties, he mentions the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, the Shiv Sena founded by Bal Thackeray in Maharashtra, the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, and the Lok Janshakti Party of Chirag Paswan in Bihar. He further lists the Abdullahs and Mufti family of Kashmir, and the Badals’ Akali Dal in Punjab. Other examples he cites are from Telangana — K Chandrasekhara Rao and family — and Tamil Nadu, of the Karunanidhi-Stalin family.
He does not mention Tejashwi Yadav, son of RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav, though BJP’s Poonawalla seems to think the article stings the Bihar leader directly.
Tharoor cites wider data, too, to be sure. “As one recent investigation revealed, 149 families are represented by multiple members in state legislative assemblies, with 11 central ministers and nine chief ministers also having family connections,” he notes. He sees it also at the subcontinental level, mentioning the Bhuttos and Sharifs in Pakistan, the Sheikh and Zia families in Bangladesh, and the Bandaranaikes and the Rajapaksas in Sri Lanka.
Tharoor says there are some reasons why India has this phenomenon, such as branding, name recognition and credibility, and sees low literacy rates as one cause too.
“India’s embrace of political dynasties may also have a cultural component. Despite massive progress on modernization, Indian society retains a sense of feudal fealty, only the reverence once offered to local zamindars (landowners) or royalty is now granted to political leaders,” he says.
“When political power is determined by lineage, rather than ability, commitment, or grassroots engagement, the quality of governance suffers… it is especially problematic when candidates’ main qualification is their surname,” he further writes.
Tharoor has been having run-ins, direct and indirect, with the Congress leadership for years, which escalated after he praised PM Narendra Modi as he was chosen to be on a diplomatic outreach panel by the BJP-led government after Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.
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