Considering the recent events in many democracies over the world, it seems that the 'regimes of the royals' are back in business.
As king of Hastinapur, Dhritarashtra witnessed (some would suggest supervised) the war between his sons (Kauravas) and nephews (Pandavas) during the period of Mahabharata. Blind from birth, reluctantly forced to occupy the throne, he was manipulated by powers behind the throne.
While such examples of power behind the thrones were common in the days of royalty when kings and queens ruled, modern democracies are expected, and claimed, to be different. Those elected as Presidents and Prime Ministers in democratic regimes are the manifestations of ‘power of the people’. Yet, recent events in many democracies around the world would suggest that ‘regimes of the royals are back in business.’
Named in a corruption scandal during his regime as the popular and charismatic president of Brasil, Lula is now being appointed by her nominee successor president Dilma as her Chief of Staff (which may give Lula immunity from prosecution). The democratic roulette in Russia has shown how Putin (now president again) and Dmitri (now prime minister again) have been ‘rotating’ between themselves the occupancy of the throne in Moscow.
In democratically robust America, certain families (Bush and Clintons in recent times) have ‘rotated’ their occupancy of the thrones. Closer home, Sonia Gandhi ‘ruled’ the largest democracy (India) for ten years while her nominee Dr Manmohan Singh occupied the throne. Just a few months ago, Penniselvam of AIADMK party in Tamil Nadu occupied the throne while Amma (Jayalalitha) was serving out prison term for corruption.
Many more examples can be cited from around the world of democracies. While Dhritarashtra-like examples can be found in many civilizational histories, ‘recovery’ of such illustrations in modern-day democracies poses questions about the ‘irrelevance’ of elected leadership. The ‘royal democrats’ occupy the throne through the ‘electoral procedure’; and, powers behind the throne manipulate its current and future occupants in a rather brazen manner. There seems to be no differences across political parties or ideologies or pedigrees----left and right, old and new, all behave in similar manner.
Should then the facade of democracy be done away with? Should we then look for royalty and ‘powers behind the thrones’, and not bother about who is occupying it? How can citizens ‘reclaim’ democracy from such ‘royal democrats’? What can be done to delegitimise ‘power behind the throne’ in modern democracies?
The author is Founder-President of PRIA, Delhi
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