In the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s political strategy, opposition to dynastic politics has gradually moved from the periphery to the centre. This sharpened focus on a ‘dynasty-mukt (dynasty-free) Bharat’ was at the heart of the party line propounded at the BJP’s national executive meet in Hyderabad. Dynastic politics is becoming the meta narrative under which all the proclaimed ills of the opposition parties — corruption, misgovernance, secularism etc. — are sought to be encoded.
Discourse on dynastic politics
At the outset, it is important to note a shift in emphasis in the BJP’s discourse on dynastic politics. The charge of “ parivarvaad” (dynastism)” is now levelled as much against regional parties as the Congress. Post 2019, the BJP has hit a ceiling in its project of national dominance. It has struggled to expand its footprint in eastern and southern States such as Odisha, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. The dominant force which has checked the BJP’s rise in all these States happens to be, in varying degrees, dynastic parties. Hindu majoritarianism alone hasn’t been able to propel the fortunes of the BJP in these States; thus the need to put dynastic politics at the forefront. The Prime Minister said he wants a strong opposition, liberated from the “clutches of dynasty”, which he termed a “disease” that is hollowing out Indian democracy. The recent splitting of the Shiv Sena, apparently orchestrated from New Delhi, was hence presented as a rare and salutary development of a party freeing itself from the stranglehold of a family and returning to its true ideals.
