Udhayanidhi Stalin’s unstoppable ascendance brings a moment of pause in which all parties need to look within and ask themselves if they are making space for, not standing in the way of, the young and aspiring.
The rise and rise of Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of MK Stalin, newly anointed Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, is swift and spectacular even in a landscape where family in politics is routine. From the time when the then actor who ran a successful production house made his first appearances on the public political stage in 2018, to becoming the No 2 in government, second only to his father, in 2024, Udhayanidhi’s graph has been made possible by back-to-back promotions. He was DMK’s “star campaigner” in the 2019 general election, named the party’s youth wing secretary the same year, given a ticket in the 2021 assembly polls, which he won, inducted into the Stalin cabinet 18 months later. Now, his latest elevation may or may not cause ripples, but it is clear that the meteoric son-rise represents a shrinking of the DMK, if not a radical departure from its core ideological moorings. The consolidation of family rule is taking place in a party that draws upon the rich and progressive legacy of Dravidianism, which championed equality, social justice, federalism. Dynastic succession ill fits a party that claims to draw inspiration from one of the most powerful and evocative models of political and social inclusivity and pluralism. And yet, in this, the DMK is no aberration. Unfortunately, it is part of a political mainstream in which the centralisation of power in the family has meant decreasing openness to democratic possibilities, in a system where the threshold of entry for “outsiders” is already high and forbidding.
A look at many other regional parties testifies to the same narrowing. From the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP in Uttar Pradesh to the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD in Bihar, from the firming up of Abhishek Banerjee’s grip over the TMC in West Bengal to the anointment of Aaditya Thackeray as indisputable heir apparent in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena – by putting family first, parties have reneged on their promise of a wider politics that was seen to contribute to the deepening of democracy. After the collapse of the Congress-dominated system in the late 1980s-early 90s, India’s political arena became more inclusive because of the emergence of regional parties on the national stage. They brought new issues and concerns, mobilised and represented so-far voiceless constituencies, in terms of caste and class, region and gender. Even as it presents a striking contrast with the original promise of the regional party, the problem of family take-over is also an affliction of the national party. The Congress, in which the baton has passed from Sonia Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi, is the most obvious example. To its credit, the Left has largely kept families away. The BJP, too, for all its righteous rage over dynastic politics, privileges sons and daughters in its ranks although it has kept them at arm’s length when it comes to leadership roles.
In a polity in which democracy has not slowed down, is still empowering left-behind areas and constituencies, and where it can still spring a surprise, the grip of dynasty is a heavy burden. Udhayanidhi Stalin’s unstoppable ascendance brings a moment of pause in which all parties need to look within and ask themselves if they are making space for, not standing in the way of, the young and aspiring. When every regional party becomes family business, democracy decays — at home.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 01-10-2024 at 00:45 IST
