Current generation dynast is ‘lacking in charisma, understanding’: Jaitley

Pointing towards dynastic parties like Congress, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday opined that the current generation dynast is ”lacking in charisma, understanding and popular confidence” so the crowd around the family was getting increasingly frustrated.
”Dynastic parties have one major drawback. If the current generation of the party is competent, charismatic and enjoys popular confidence, the dynast can pull-off major victories. There is an incentive in the party to rally behind him. However, if the current generation dynast is lacking in charisma, understanding and popular confidence, the crowd around the family gets increasingly frustrated. Is the Congress Party witnessing that?,” Mr Jaitley said in his blog ”Is the Congress Party Now Paying the Cost for its Dynastic Character?”.
He said dynasties demolish organisational structures & the party becomes a crowd around the dynast and Congress was original creator of this concept.
He quoted Late Ch Charan Singh that ”world over parties elect leaders; in India, leaders create parties, which travel with the leader”.
Mr Jaitley said the Congress has been out of power for five years and they stare at another possible defeat.
”They have to live with their leader not relying on political advisors but on some from ‘non-conventional’ ones who are out of sync with the Congress leaders. Since the last word on any issue belongs to the leader, there is an element of unpredictability,” he said.
”Owing to low-ability & greatness thrust on them, dynastic leaders lack self-awareness. Psychologists refer this as the Dunning-Kruger effect. This seems to be the reason which persuades the Congress president to cross the line of decency and dignity when he refers to the Prime Minister,” Mr Jaitley said.
”I have consistently held the view that dynasties owning political parties is an unfortunate phenomenon which has accelerated in the last three decades. The Congress was original creator of this concept,” he said.
There are three prominent non-dynastic parties in India. The BJP has elected, over the last few decades, leaders of the calibre of Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr L K Advani, and Mr Narendra Modi as its front rank leaders, he said.
”When the new generation of the Left took over, their dominant faces were men like Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury. Despite the limited impact of the Left, they had decades of experience and ideological clarity,” he said.
Mr Jaitley lauded another non-dynastic party, JD-U and its leader Mr Nitish Kumar , who will shortly be completing his third term in his office as Chief Minister. ”It goes to his credit that he changed the governance culture of Bihar,” he said.