DNA Edit: All in the family

One is often inclined to take Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s statement with a pinch of salt. His recent remark while addressing students of a foreign university that India operates on dynastic lines was met with stern criticism from some quarters, but was largely dismissed offhand.

However, new developments within the BSP circle are, sadly, proving his opinion to be, ironically, true. Setting the stage for consolidation of power within the BSP, Mayawati has absorbed her brother Anand Kumar and nephew Akash within the party folds, and in a first of its kind step, introduced them at a political rally held this week. Many are reading this as a bid by the former UP CM to retain the reins of the party within the family.

Interestingly, the father-son duo has been present in most party meetings called by the BSP supremo in New Delhi and Lucknow lately. It was in April this year when the celebrations of the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar were underway that Mayawati emphatically announced the appointment of Anand as the party’s vice president.

For good measure, she added that Akash will only help with party activities and will not throw his hat in the ring for the position of a legislator, MP or the Chief Minister. Irrespective of whether Akash campaigns for an executive position or not, the fact that he has been given a red-carpet welcome to the position of the party’s vice -president erodes the democratic fibre of BSP. Only natural that BSP party workers should see red.