Indian Politics, A Family Business?

Hereditary MPs are on average 4.5 times richer than MPs who have no family background in politics. Hyper-hereditary MPs (those with multiple family connections) are almost twice as wealthy as Hereditary MPs, making them the richest parliamentarians of all. Some of the hyper-hereditary MPs include Naveen Jindal, Varun Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Rahul Gandhi and Sandeep Dikshit.

Candidates are now required to file affidavits of their assets along with their nomination papers. Although a certain amount of lying and cheating does still exist, the level of transparency is much greater than it used to be, and the declared assets of MPs should be taken as a serious starting point. If one ranks 20 richest MPs in the Lok Sabha, 15 are hereditary politicians and 10 are members of the Indian National Congress.

Hereditary MPs have a double advantage: they are handed both money and power at birth. The rest have little chance of entering Parliament. This handicaps the functioning of democracy, which depends not only on free elections but on a degree of internal party accountability. Equal opportunity should be given to all who aspire to find a place in the parliament. National politics must be more than a family run business.

What are the long term implications of dynastic politics? In his working paper, Ronald Mendoza analyzes the social and economic effects of political dynasties in Philippines. The key finding is that regions which have dynastic incumbents also have a higher incidence of poverty, suggesting a link between economic inequality and political structure.

Is it time India puts an end to dynastic politics which has gripped the country in its dirty hands?