Like Rahul Gandhi & Priyanka Vadra, a sibling duo from the biggest political dynasties is not a rarity in South Asia, although they come with extremely chequered trajectories.
New Delhi: The Congress suddenly declared Wednesday that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would formally enter politics and take an official position in the party after years of an active but backroom role.
With this, siblings Rahul Gandhi, who is the president of the party, and Priyanka are expected to be the power duo that steers the wobbly party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and beyond.
The Gandhi siblings will now collectively take forward their political dynasty, playing an active role simultaneously.
However, in South Asia, a brother-sister duo leading political dynasties is not a rarity, with some of India’s neighbouring countries throwing up some of the most famous names, albeit with very different histories and extremely chequered trajectories.
Anura Bandaranaike and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka, and Benazir and Murtaza Bhutto in Pakistan are two of the most prominent examples of siblings in politics from the main, elite and old political dynasties of their respective countries.
Both sets of siblings, however, had a rocky and troubled equation, with only one emerging as the prime claimant of their respective lineages.
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The Bandaranaikes
The Bandaranaike siblings had a rare family background: Both their parents, father Solomon and mother Sirimavo, served as prime ministers of Sri Lanka.
Born and raised in such a hardcore political environment, it was hardly unexpected that the siblings would eventually play an active political role themselves.
However, it was Chandrika who raced ahead, becoming the country’s Prime Minister — the third member of her immediate family to do so — with Anura remaining the “uncrowned crown prince”.
Anura entered politics in 1974, taking charge of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) youth wing, while Chandrika became an executive committee member of its women’s league.
The SLFP was founded by Solomon. Mismatched expectations and strong individual ambitions, however, caused continuous ruptures in the siblings’ equation.
For instance, Chandrika left the SLFP in 1984 and, with her husband Vijaya Kumaratunga, formed the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (SLMP). However, Kumaratunga was assassinated in 1988 and Chandrika left for London, only to return to politics and the SLFP in the early 1990s.
This led to tensions in the family and, in 1994, Anura, said to resent the fact that his mother favoured his sister, decided to leave his family party and join the rival United National Party (UNP).
The spat was public and unpleasant.
“I have been forced by events, manipulated by a few conspirators who have taken absolute control of the SLFP, to take this decision,” Anura had said in his resignation statement.
In the 1994 elections, when an alliance led by the SLFP came to power, Chandrika became prime minister.
A few months later, she won the elections for President and her mother Sirimavo succeeded her as Prime Minister — top positions that eluded Anura and, perhaps, led to much bitterness.
However, their mother’s death in 2000 brought the siblings together and Anura came back into the SLFP fold, after which he was elected the speaker of Parliament.
While Anura died in 2008 following prolonged illness, Chandrika continues to play a major role in Sri Lanka’s political arena from the sidelines.
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The Bhuttos
Much like the Gandhis in India, the Bhuttos have been the first family of Pakistani politics. A tragic trajectory and divergent paths, however, have been the defining aspect of two of the Bhutto siblings — Mir Murtaza and Benazir.
The Bhuttos were an old, elite family, with the four siblings — Benazir, Murtaza, Shahnawaz and Sanam — receiving the best education, including at foreign institutes, and comforts growing up.
It was the execution of their father, former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, by the General Zia-ul-Haq regime in 1979 that caused serious faultlines in the family.
When their father was sentenced to death in 1978, both Benazir and Murtaza were near-political amateurs.
The tragedy also brought out the differences in Benazir and Murtaza’s approaches, with the former opting for a political struggle as against the latter’s entry into armed resistance.
Following his father’s execution, Murtaza moved to Afghanistan and formed Al-Zulfiqar — a militant organisation — to avenge his death. While Benazir was a firm believer of democratic means, both her brothers opted for armed movements.
Murtaza was expected to play an important role in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), founded by Zulfiqar, but it was Benazir who eventually carried forward her father’s political legacy, becoming the first woman prime minister of a Muslim country in 1988. At the age of 35, she was among the youngest prime ministers in the world.
A few years later, in 1993, Murtaza returned from exile and decided to contest the election to the Sindh Assembly against Benazir’s candidates, and the family tussle got ugly as their mother, PPP chairperson Nusrat, actively campaigned for her son.
Some blamed the family rift on Benazir’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, who later went on to become the country’s President, while some said it was Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chief Nawaz Sharif’s dirty tricks at play. Either way, animosity between the siblings only intensified.
Tragedy, however, has continued to hound the family. In 1996, Murtaza was killed in a police encounter, which continues to be shrouded in mystery, with his family members alleging it was orchestrated by Zardari. Benazir, meanwhile, was assassinated in 2007.
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The Gandhis
Rahul and Priyanka will be the first set of siblings from the Gandhi family to be in active politics at the same time.
While their uncle Sanjay Gandhi and their father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, were also in politics, the latter entered the arena long after Sanjay’s death in 1980.
So far, the roles were neatly divided — Rahul as the heir apparent, the organisation man and the face of the party, and Priyanka as a behind-the-scenes manager and a solid support to her brother and mother, but outside the purview of the formal party structure.
But with Priyanka now assuming the role of an important cog in the party machinery as well, one can expect her to be far more visible and at the forefront than earlier.
How the party and the siblings themselves continue to negotiate these demarcated roles, and how voters react to them, is what will define the journey of this partnership.
That doesn’t legitimise dynasties….
Mr. Editor,
Reading in-between lines, there is a discernible but a distinctive touch of an unseemly bias in favour of the the Gandhi family in your article suggesting that the Gandhi family siblings are already a revolutionary force to turn the tarnished image of the Congress Party. around . While the analysis of various siblings duod in the political arenas of the countries around India is an able analysis, the presumptuous suggestion that the Rahul/ Priyanka team will be the heir apparent of the core portion of the corpus of the Congress Party, with the underlying declaration that Priyanka already looks very much like Indira and is very popular with the women voters..As if she were the very reincarnation of the her grandmother Indira! So why bother with the election at all!!I beg to differ!! ??
There is still much water to flow under the bridge!
The article skips the glaring point that Rahul bringing Priyanka into politics – is this not an incontrovertible tacit admission of Rahul that as a political force he is a failure ! If he were to be regarded as a successful.politicsl entity unto himself, would he have brought Priyanka into the arena. Obviously not!
I. Stand to be corrected , were I wrong in regarding the average Indian voter as a less informed voter than heretofore, then the question arises, for any self-respecting average Indian, why should he regard Gandhi’s as if they are a divine gift to India, while not forgetting the incontrovertible fact this that the Rahul Priyanka are not of the pedigree quality.
If truth be told they are an Indo-Italian product ! You cannot put it higher. Than that, unless you would want to be laughed out.
Are there not true capable Indians available in the Congress Party that you need an Indo-Italian duo to be put on a pedestal and let that product to rule India.or is this a case of an inherent inferiority complex still prevalent in the psyche of the Congress Party !! Is Congress Party so impoverished mentally or intellectually that they are incapable of thinking in terms of a purely indigenous product to be a prime ministerial candidate ! Or the point cannot be lost that may be they have their own agenda in continuing with the Gandhi family.
If that is not what it is, pray explain what else is it !!
Alexis Despues
What makes the combination more harmonious and productive is the fact that there is no intense sibling rivalry between them. The line of succession is clear, for both this generation and the next. Growing up together, they have seen the painful deaths of Mrs Gandhi and their father. Exceptional bonds forged through the family’s moments of triumph and tragedy.