Dynasty Politics & Media Hype

The Indian society, particularly the politicians seem to have a hang-over of monarchial culture where a son of a king becomes a king, a son of a prohit becomes a prohit and a son of a vettiyan becomes a vettiyan. The obvious reason seems to be the ease of choice and lack of standards of merit of selection. Off late the print and electronic media in India seems to have joined such hypes. And the "party with a difference" doesn't seem to be any exception with it looking at Rahul Mahajan to fill-up the void created by Promodji. No doubt, Promod Mahajan was a great leader and I adore him. A great dad doesn't always mean a great son.

Rahul got the media glare when Promodji was hospitalized and all the great leaders like Atalji and Advaniji came calling. Proximity of his father with such leaders and a hug by them to Rahul was seen as enough reason for the second-rung BJP leaders to consider him the heir to Promodji. Not very late, the Maharashtra BJP sought the support of the congress for Rahul's RS membership a replacement for Promodji's. But as expected, it is promptly turned down by the congress. What else can you expect of a party which wants to rule even it is not the single largest party in the coalition.

Now after the hospoitalisation of Rahul Mahajan, after what looks like cosumption of drugs, the same media talks of embarrassment for the top-rung BJP leaders. I didn't expect the news of hospitalisation of Rahul to come as the headline in the front page in "The Hindu" or the headline news in "CNN IBN" or NDTV. But this happened and I don't find any reason other than for creating artificial hypes and there by increasing viewership. IMHO, the Indian media should learn to look at the professional and personal lives of the leaders differently. I am not sure if the media and indian political system is complementary or derogatory to each other. But I am sure journalists and media don't do justice to their profession by doing building such hypes.