Shipping Note: This item usually arrives at your doorstep in 10-15 daysAuthor: Sunita Aron
Publisher: Hay House
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 352
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9789384544324
Description
Why are surnames so important in politics? Should there be birth entitlements to inheritance of power in a democratic set-up? Must the offspring be given on a platter what the common people have to struggle for? Believers in meritocracy and equitable distribution of power would cry in chorus: ‘No’.
Then why is India’s vibrant democracy stained with dynastic politics in which bereavement is also used to transfer power? The Nehru-Gandhi family has so far been singularly held responsible for this widespread political malaise. Rightly so! Had Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru not dithered when his daughter Indira Gandhi stood for presidentship of the Congress almost six decades back, dynastic politics would not have crept into our rich democracy and grown into a monster.
What the father founded, the daughter fostered. Since then, innumerable dynasties – old and new, big and small, famous and infamous – dot the country’s political landscape today.
Non-Congress parties, though equally guilty, have sporadically raised the issue of hereditary politics but never as intensely as in the watershed 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the voters debated and debunked the right to rule on the basis of birth certificate and not merit. They handed over the reins of the country to a non-dynast, Narendra Modi, punished the country’s grand old party for its non-performance and its scam-ridden tenure and, yet, elected many dynastic scions – a peculiar contradiction, but that’s what Indian politics is all about!
This volume incisively analyses the unethical games politicians play to remain in power and grow into brands.
Contents
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 – Rebirth of a Dynasty – Not broken, Just bent
Chapter 2 – Higher Stakes, Hidden Games – Desperate times, desperate measures
Chapter 3 – Dynasty in Distress Again – Times for gods to evacuate the marble halls
Chapter 4 – The Great Fall - House of Cards, made of glass
Chapter 5 – making of a Dynasty – Honour among thieves
Chapter 6 – A big Farce – Just like the dummy houses of Leinster Gardens, London
Chapter 7 – The ‘Pawar Power Play’ – Great power, great responsility
Chapter 8 – Money Power – Bloodline + Business = power unlimited
Chapter 9 – Regional Parties – A Family Affairs
Chapter 10 – Different Strokes – Virasat Ki rajniti
Chapter 11 – From Country to Constituency – Honey, I shrunk the dynasties!
Chapter 12 –m Bigger the Better – The tale of four scions
Chapter 13 – Feudal in North – Riyasat aur siyasat
Chapter 14 – Women in Politics – Kidiyon ka hoga zamana
Chapter 15 – Films and Dynasty - Lights, camera, contest
Chapter 16 – No Family Photo! Really! – Baton bearer – check, legacy – not so much
Chapter 17 – Political Weddings – Politics ke Liye kuch Bhi Karega
Chapter 18 – The Show has to on – Heena isis ka naam hai
Chapter 19 – Are Leaders Born or Bred – Genes, caste and Brand
Epilogue – Will Dynasties Survive?
Notes and References
Index
