The Surname?

In response to my post, ” Silver Lining” a commentator observed,

” Dear Tamo Basanta, it will be more meaningful if you give examples of our role models as persons who are not the likes of Agatha Sangma or Sachin Pilot or Jyotiraditya Scindia… who had ready made ladders made by their fathers. Anyway, it’s great to see Agatha Sangma as the youngest minister in the midst of the likes of SM Krishna. Greater to hear that she wants to be the voice of the neglected North East India. To me PA Sangma’s story of how he grew up in a small tribal village of Garo Hills is more interesting than that Agatha Sangma”

Yes, we love and empathize with underdogs, the rags to riches stories, people who fought against odds to come out successful..this is because most of us are underprivileged in more ways than one and when we see successful people who had similar problems like us, we tend to identify ourselves with those persons and our dreams and aspirations to be successful like them seem more achievable..

However, we cannot deny the fact that in today’s modern world, driven by performance – having a famous surname hardy matters at all. What is the fault of Indira Gandhi if she happened to be the daughter of Nehru… as long as she performed, she was PM when she didn’t, she was chucked out, when she crossed the line ( the infamous “emergency”) she was even jailed. No one in politics ( read “democracy” as in India)  is “appointed/nominated”- they all come through a grinding exercise of elections. While there is no doubt that the surname may give you a headstart, it does not guarantee that you will breast the tape first in the race. The beauty of indian democracy is that you do not gain from your surname – even a criminal can contest from jail and become a legislator!! look at the examples of Arun Gawli or Shahabudin (incidentally the one officer who brought the notorious Shahbudin to his knees is my batchmate Santosh Kumar Mall, the present DC in Siwan…). So whether you are a criminal or a Gandhi, you start from zero. Talking of Gandhis, there is a lot of flak in some sections of the media about dynastic rule..can someone tell of any “gandhi” who does not deserve what he/she has achieved but feel that they got it as some sort of “inheritance” – start from Motilal nehru, right down to Rahul..I don’t think you will find one. Compare that to the Chautalas of Haryana, just for example..you can find examples everywhere – the Karunanidhis in TN, the Gowda’s in Karnataka, the Badals in Punjab.. Take other fields too – the bacchhan surname hardly get the box office ringing for Abhishek – he had to go through some 16 flops before finally making the cut; just because he is the son of Sunil Gavaskar does not ensure a place for Rohan Gavaskar in the Indian team; heard of Sunil/Suniel dev?, son of Dev Anand, the legend – launched by Dev Anand when he was at his peak – but without personal performance or worth, the surname did nothing for him. What about Tushar Kapoor (Jitendra’s son), Bappa Lahiri (son of Bappi Lahiri), Mimoh Chakravorty (son of Mithun)..?. the list is long…

Spare a thought for people like Agatha, Sachin, Jyotiraditya, people who were least bothered with politics in their formative years, had some of the best education possible – could have picked and choose any profession they want because of their good academic records and proficiencies and in fact already doing very succesfully in their respective professions, still chose to come to politics. An ordinary person may lose and you may still say that he lost because he is just an ordinary person, with no one to help him or a famous surname to carry around…look at the heavy burden of expectation that these guys have to carry around, not just to establish a name for themselves and come out of the shadows of their illustrious parents, but also to carry on the legacy and not spoil the good image of their families…all at such tender, young ages…while we call for money from home, lying that there is an increase in fee – just to have a beer/peg/sniff, blowing artistic smoke from our cigarettes and pass judgements on others, sitting on a smelly, dinghy bar…

Let us not pre-judge a person by his/her surname, but by his/her performance…