In Vasundhara Raje’s constituency Jhalrapatan, the maharani and the mukhya mantri are not separate.
So why do they call you Raja Sahib”, I ask Dushyant Singh, Member of Parliament from Jhalawar-Baran and the only son of Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. A few of us journalists have just finished talking to him about politics in this part of Rajasthan, where he is running his mother’s campaign to win back Jhalrapatan assembly constituency for a record fourth time.
“It’s out of affection,” he responds, pointing out the names of several of his aides, which are not their real names. He doesn’t, once, add that he doesn’t like the title or, more importantly, reprimands people when they use it for him.
The French expression ‘noblesse oblige’, when translated into English, means that nobility has a sense of responsibility towards its people, beyond its titles. In India, sociologists use the word jajman for describing this sense of social, economic and religious responsibility, between the upper castes (patrons, jajman) and lower castes (kameen); royalty was supposed to be a further cut above.
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Interestingly, in this part of southern Rajasthan, people continue to happily call Vasundhara Raje their ‘Maharani’, and her son Dushyant, ‘Raja Sahib’. Waiting for home minister Rajnath Singh to speak at a rally in Jhalrapatan, yet another lesson in the subversion of democracy by the once-nobility is instructive.
Interestingly, the insistence that Vasundhara Raje is their ‘Maharani’ comes not from the old, which would have been understandable, but from the young – students who have just finished studying and are now looking for jobs.
“Hamari Maharani ne hamaare liye sab kuchh kiya hai (Our Maharani has done everything for us),” says Gajraj, a thin young man with an ultra-modern uplifted hair-cut that could rival any salon in Delhi, Paris and London. He proceeds to detail the several, hugely commendable initiatives that the chief minister has carried out since she was first elected MP from this region in 1989.
“Why do you call her Maharani?” I ask.
“Hum unko sammanit kar rahe hain,” he responds, too polite to wonder out loud what kind of a question this is, adding, “hamaari mukhya mantra hain (We are paying her respect, she is our chief minister)”.
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A very short lesson in democracy follows. The crowd gathers. Mukhya mantri doesn’t equal Maharani, I point out. Vasundhara Raje, chief minister and MLA from Jhalrapatan, must be admired, respected, supported for all the work she has done for her constituents, for all the incredible projects that she has pushed through – a hospital and medical college, roads that would rival Hema Malini’s cheeks and even a multi-floor mini secretariat – but what’s that got to do with the royalty tag?
Gajraj is joined by other young men. Yes, they agree, soon after India became independent, the one-man-one-vote principle was established. The only thing that separates the Maharani from mukhya mantri, they admit, is that one loaded word. Democracy.
Something is bothering Gajraj, however. “How can the ‘Maharani’ not be ‘Maharani’? She is the daughter of the Gwalior family. She is now our chief minister.” And, what about ‘Raja Sahib’?“That’s what everybody calls him,” he says.
It’s clear that mother-and-son, who have paid a lot of attention to developing this part of Rajasthan, enjoy the fruits of this fusion in the minds of the electorate. Vasundhara Raje is the ‘Maharani Chief Minister’ who ensures that all these projects and other works take place. The two cannot be separated. If she were just a chief minister, she would be like one of us. Equal and ordinary. Distinguishing herself would become a much tougher job.
Vasundhara Raje and Dushyant Singh are afraid of tampering with this illusion. Especially when the ground is shifting beneath your feet, or seems to be, it is much easier to let democracy become a vehicle for perpetuating nobility, not destroying it.
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Both, in fact, epitomise the patronage and dynasty against which Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to rail, when he accuses ‘The Family’, several generations of Nehru-Gandhis, of destroying India’s democratic fibre. The discomfort between Vasundhara Raje and BJP party president Amit Shah as well as RSS leader and Modi confidante O.P. Mathur is well-known, but at least for the course of this election she has outsmarted them by quietly invoking her credentials as the daughter of the formidable Jana Sangh and BJP leader Rajmata Vijaye Raje Scindia.
Moreover, who’s to question a winning streak? If Vasundhara Raje can pull off this tightly fought election and make history, who cares about ennobled concepts like egalitarianism?
It took a revolution to give France and the western world the concepts of liberty, equality and fraternity. In Kerala in 1957, elected Communist leader E.M.S Namboodiripad laid the seeds of a fundamentally equal state, which continues to deliver democratic dividends in basic benefits like literacy and health.
Back in Jhalrapatan Monday, the crowds of rake-thin farmers dotting the maidan, waiting for Rajnath Singh is a revelatory snapshot of the farming crisis that bedevils Rajasthan as well as other parts of India.
Who cares if there’s a garlic glut, why and what lessons this holds for other crops? Or, whether this has any connection with basic nutrition and the health of the larger population? Moreover, what’s the D-word, Democracy, got to do with all this, anyway?
Right now, Vasundhara Raje is fighting for her political survival. Whether the people will overthrow the Maharani because they’ve had enough of her or allow her back into the chief minister’s chair is probably the most important question this week.
The rest of India waits for Rajasthan to speak.
India should have respected the compact it made with the princely states. Their privy purses and other privileges were a truly modest sum, ravaged by inflation, forcing many of them to convert their palaces into hotels. 2. As for dynasty, the Badals in Punjab, the Thackerays in Maharashtra, two of the oldest allies, swear by it. It is becoming the default setting for regional parties all over the country. 3. There is a sameness to politics in India, complete with near absence of inner party democracy and the high command culture. The old jibes no longer ring true. The only thing which matters is delivery on the ground.