All in the family

One of the general secretaries of the Congress Party, Margaret Alva, has resigned from her post. Considered a member of the ‘coterie’ close to Sonia, it is a strange predicament for her. Alva might be feeling hard done by for making the allegation that the Congress party has ‘sold’ tickets during the last Assembly elections. Along with the allegation, she asked another awkward question, ‘why my son was denied a ticket, when the party has shown indulgence to family members?’ It is not known whether the order for disciplinary proceedings was issued for the ‘allegation’ or for the ‘question’!

 

What ever said and done, having known the ‘family’, which owns the party for the last sixty years, she must not have asked such a question demeaning the inviolability of that family. Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot have entered politics only after the demise of their fathers. Moreover, they have developed a sort of friendship with the ‘scion’ of the Nehru family, who is trying to ‘rediscover’ the India, which was ‘discovered’ by his great grandfather. Margaret Alva must have at least done the wise thing of asking her son to be friendly with Rahul. Having been experienced for more than three decades, she must have understood the ‘culture’ of her party.

Alva’s questions have not only put the Congress in trouble, but have also opened an interesting debate on yet another electoral aspect, which would defame the world’s largest democracy. Though all parties’ high commands do not indulge in selling tickets, it is no secret that tickets are offered only to those, who have either caste strength or cash power. Here in Tamilnadu the Dravidian land, aspiring candidates are required to fund the party’s treasury and the DMK is very famous for such a practice. Issuing a party dictat that the aspiring candidates must pay a certain amount as election fund


cannot be termed as ‘selling’ tickets. But, it seems in Karnataka, the grand old party has actually sold tickets for a price!

Many other parties except the ‘Left’ front and the ‘Right’ BJP have become family concerns, either ‘own’ or ‘adopted’, which is a mockery of democracy. Right from ‘presidentship’ to ‘candidature’ the inner-party democracy is required to be debated and streamlined in such a way that true democracy prevails ultimately.

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