Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar gave a very studied and balanced decision on the ‘real’ Shiv Sena issue. Any other ruling would have been an injustice, violating the norms of democratic functioning. Basically, a split is not the same as defection when the question is about who are the real representatives of a party in the House. The matter was made easy by the fact that the Shiv Sena’s constitution is vague in many ways and its governing structure is largely unrepresentative. So, any claims made regarding ‘official’ directions and party whips, etc., are largely unsustainable. The only constant factor has been the dominance of the Thackeray family, with little power in any party official’s hands. Any legal challenge to the Speaker’s decision will face even more infirmities in the courts.
The ruling should come as a wake-up call for all the family run parties in the country. The Congress has been making some attempts to become ‘more representative’, which led to the appointment of Mallikarjuna Kharge as the party President, but it still remains largely tokenism, with real power continuing to reside with the Gandhi family. The dependence is greatly on leaders belonging to the Rajiv Gandhi era, mostly because Rahul Gandhi does not enjoy the camaraderie or confidence of others of his generation in the party – a reason why Jyotiraditya Rao Scindia abandoned ship. The dependence on Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh was the primary reason for the Madhya Pradesh defeat. The party has a very long way to go before it can have the structured leadership that exists in the BJP-RSS combine.
Other family-based parties are facing similar meltdowns. There are tensions being reported between Mamata Banerjee and nephew Abhishek in the TMC. Its hard to tell who’s currently with whom in the Andhra parties. Family is playing a disruptive role even among Kerala’s communists. Nephew Ajit Pawar could not be assuaged by Sharad Pawar, because the daughter mattered more. And so on!
The same goes for the caste-based parties’ family proprietorships. The base is so narrow that insecurity remains a constant. Akhilesh Yadav can never tell when one or the uncle will make a deal with some other combine. Muslim loyalty depends solely on winnability – they remain open to the Congress, the BSP and others. Ditto for the Yadav family in Bihar – Nitish Kumar is an expert in pirouettes. Parties need genuine ideologies, must provide opportunities to the meritorious and have larger goals than mere self-advancement. Adherence to well-made constitutions would be the first-step in achieving this objective. The Thackerays have discovered this the hard way.
