Dynastic Formations

There is no doubt that leaders and leadership issues will determine the future as they have influenced the past and whilst things have changed on the political landscape as we go from majority rule to coalition governance the relevance of leaders cannot be underestimated.  Majority rule means a supreme leader who can win or lose a General election by their charisma, competence and political acumen and the same principal applies to regional parties who dominate the state. Unless we have leaders of ability and competence both the Congress and the BJP will lose to each other or to the Regional forces in the state.

The High Command is a relic of the past and loyalty and servility without competence will be a disaster as future trends are very different from the past and there are many instances in the present which are pointing to changes in approach and leadership responses.  Politics never takes a vacation and strong Central and State leaders and the power of resource control along with insecurity results in Dynastic formations but if we study past trends we will see that Dynastic formations at the Center an d in the States do not guarantee competence or survival unless backed by ability and the recent past illustrates this trend and this will continue and intensify in the future.

The Lok Sabha elections are six months away and we are likely to have a Coalition formation in 2009 but the composition of the power formation cannot be taken for granted by anyone and ability, competence and political skill can be ignored at any level and every party will have to put their best candidates as it is the public who will select the winners in preference to a nonexistent.

Dynastic formations can generate many a negative if the family interests and rifts for control and succession can subordinate the party interest and we have a classic example of this in Tamil Nadu where the DMK Chief K Karunanidhi is unable to manage his family interests and determine the future succession between his sons, daughters and nephews and their supporters and this in turn affects the Coalition structure and its longevity in the state. We have seen a similar situation in AP when the ailing NTR had succession wars involving his wife, sons and daughters, son in law and eventually Chandra Babu won and governed for two terms before losing the last election and can well return to power again.

Change is inevitable as nothing lasts forever. The Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh is a economist, has impeccable integrity and his intentions are honorable but he has no political power and whilst he will-do everything to fight inflation and the price rise on food there will be few political responses as economic issues often need a political short term solution to revive confidence levels. Political messages create the right impressions and this means sacrifices and a stern approach to what is considered by the voting public as an extravagance in their daily lives.