Sonia's move break from South Asian political trend: Pakistani daily

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's decision not to nominate her son Rahul Gandhi as the party's prime ministerial candidate in India's general elections this year is a break from the trend in South Asian politics, a leading Pakistani daily has opined.

"...The decision not to nominate Rahul is a break from South Asia's trend of dynastic politics," The Daily Times stated in its editorial Tuesday.

"India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have seen political legacies shared by close relatives of the leadership of mainstream parties. Such political parties are virtually run like 'monarchies'," it added.

According to the editorial, though political parties in these countries are wedded to democracy as a system, they are reluctant to practise inner-party democracy.

The newspaper, however, pointed out that this was not the first time that Sonia Gandhi has taken a chance on running the Congress party without the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty holding the party's leadership reins.

"When Congress won elections in 2003, despite calls for her to do so, Sonia decided not to run for the premiership since an unseemly controversy broke out about her foreign origins," it stated.

"In the run up to India's elections this year, it was speculated that her son, Rahul Gandhi, now 43, may be nominated as Congress' candidate for the premiership. Despite consensus on the issue within the Congress Working Committee, Sonia turned down the proposal."

It added that the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi might have been a reason behind this decision.

"It could be that considering the BJP's candidate for the top slot Narendra Modi's election campaign momentum and his track record in Gujarat (good on the economy, appalling on communal violence) that could outshine Rahul's political career so far, Sonia decided not to take the plunge," it said.

"But Narendra Modi's assertion that Rahul has been withdrawn from the candidacy because he did not want to run against the son of a tea seller is pure tongue-in-cheek irony."

At the same time, it lamented the fact that the political culture in Pakistan was still wedded to dynastic succession.

"In Pakistan, for example, it seems to be an unwritten code that only a Bhutto can assume the leadership of the Pakistan People's Party (Asif Zardari's episode was the exception that proves the rule)," it stated, adding that the same holds true for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Awami National Party (ANP).

The daily was of the view that although the Bhuttos have fought and sacrificed for the cause of democracy, when it comes to the party's leadership, it is always the bloodline that trumped all other considerations.

"PML-N is following the same pattern. Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif are grooming their children to take the party's caravan forward," it said.

"There is no harm in bringing leaders' scions into politics, but leadership should be earned, not inherited. Therefore, merit and not family should be the criterion for selection for any political post," it added.