Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, has claimed in a newspaper interview that he can win from anywhere if and when he chooses to contest an election. The businessman from Moradabad known for supplying the marital surname to Priyanka Gandhi did not rule out the prospect of joining politics at a later date but added that he would do so only when he felt he could make a difference. That’s mighty gracious of him. His mother-in-law’s mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, seldom spared a thought for such prerequisites. Neither did his mother-in-law’s brother-in-law, Sanjay Gandhi. Nor do, for that matter, scions of most other political clans.

Vadra’s claim has curiously come even as his wife has chosen to take the back seat in favour of her brother Rahul Gandhi who is being groomed for the top job. As son-in-law of India’s first political family, Vadra can surely be excused for harbouring political ambitions of his own. Yet, his claim that he can win from anywhere smacks of arrogance that is born of nothing more than association by marriage with the Nehru-Gandhi family. It is symptomatic of a political culture that has strayed too far from its philosophical underpinnings. It is as belittling for the Indian democracy as his brother-in-law Rahul Gandhi’s claim that he can become prime minister whenever he chooses. It reflects the notion of entitlement that has come to pervade powerful political families across the country. Rahul Gandhi and Robert Vadra are perhaps perfect representatives of this culture. If one can assume a claim to the top job by virtue of being a direct descendant, the other can at least count on winning an election on the strength of being the spouse of another direct descendant.

The Nehru-Gandhi family may be the most remarkable representative of this culture but the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar and the Akali Dal in Punjab and are variations on the same theme. These are all stories of a genuine leader, a first-generation political entrepreneur followed by benefactors whose sole merit may be little more than association through relationship by that leader. This perpetuation of political power and associated  privileges  by  a  few is a far cry from the political culture of a majority of leaders of the freedom struggle who represented and led the masses against the tyranny of British Raj. That it took just a few decades for political leaders to turn from custodians of public trust to inheritors of political power and public money points to a dangerous degeneration or perhaps to the fact that democracy is an alien construct that has failed to take root in its desired form in this country.

It cannot be anybody’s case that Vadra should not aspire for a career in politics or, for that matter, that Rahul Gandhi should not aspire for the prime minister’s post. There is nothing to stop a great leader’s son or other relatives from becoming as great or even greater leaders in their own right, just as there is nothing to stop a great musician’s son or daughter to follow in their father or mother’s footsteps – sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan can conceivably succeed Baba Allauddin Khan in every walk of life. It is equally possible, though, as in the case of Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his pioneering filmmaker son Jean Renoir, that successive generations can produce geniuses in different fields. The problem arises only if a Rahul Gandhi lays claim to a post just because his father, grandmother and great-grandfather once held it, or a Vadra assumes a following just because he is married into the first family of Indian politics. When a Lalu Prasad pronounces a 20-year-old son as his successor, he is not offering his son for a lifetime of public service but rather announcing the next claimant in line for the riches of political power.

Such claims, assumptions and appropriations militate against the fundamental concept of democracy, the framework that we adopted for ourselves at the time of independence and continue to swear by. Independent India has spawned its own version of the Westminster model that is being perfected by successive generations of political clans. From this culture of entitlement to enlightenment, Indian democracy needs to traverse a long and arduous journey to rediscover its philosophical underpinnings and serve any meaningful public purpose.