Democratic Dynasties

Democracy is the most venerated political organization in the whole of human history. It is supposedly the most ingenious invention of the statesmen for the alleged cause of human welfare. But, is it so? The question I want to answer in this blog is - is there any difference between monarchy, medieval serfdom etc., on one side and democracy on the other side? And my answer is NO. Why? Let us see.

Under the disguise of the idea of the government ‘for the people, by the people and of the people’, democracies around the world are just another continuation of the power beneath the surface. As brilliantly put forth by De Jouvenel, it is the power that spreads itself under the disguise of different political systems like monarchy and democracy. Among many similar characteristics, one characteristic which I want to emphasize here is the control of power by a singly family. Monarchy is a quintessential example of such power control by one family, but democracy also has similar characteristics! Let me list down some of the major political families in India to drive home my point.

1. The Nehru-Gandhi family (still ruling this country)
2. The Karunanidhi family
3. The Abdullah family
4. The K Karunakaran family
5. The Patnaik family
6. The Pilot family
7. The Yadav family
8. The Nandmuri family (NTR)
9. The Scindia family
10. The Thackeray family
11. The Pawar family
12. The Chautala family

As we can see from the above list, democracy is not any government ‘by the people, for the people or of the people’. The mass is still being ruled and robbed by few elite families even in democracies. There is no government of the people. It is a government of some oligarchs who are controlling lives of the subjects of their respective states.