Name of the father

You can change everything but not your genes. Who said this, you may ask. Not Groucho Marx, Mark Twain or Oscar Wilde, the gurus of one-liners, but your humble editorial writers.

You can change everything but not your genes. Who said this, you may ask. Not Groucho Marx, Mark Twain or Oscar Wilde, the gurus of one-liners, but your humble editorial writers. Cynical hacks. Did we hear you say that? Yes, it’s partly true. But this observation is based on years of politico-watching. Look at the combos we had in this election: Congress’ Sonia-Rahul Gandhi, the BJP’s Jaswant Singh-Manvendra Singh, the NCP’s Sharad Pawar-Supriya Sule and the Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam-Akhilesh Singh, just to name a few.

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If we cross the borders, there are the Bhuttos in Pakistan, Bandaranaike-Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka and the Zias and Rehman-Hasina in Bangladesh. A little farther, there are the Kennedys, the Clintons and the Bushs. Therefore, isn’t it a high time that we accept that dynasty is a fact of life? If a cricketer’s son can aspire to be a cricketer, a doctor’s or an engineer’s son can aim to follow their parents’ footstep, then what is wrong in a politician’s son/daughter following in their parent’s footsteps? As we said: it’s all in the genes. Who would not want to take advantage of a well-paved road and build a highway? Of course, there should be enough space in the political system for the new kids on the block, but that doesn’t mean that all those who have had a headstart should be looked upon as gatecrashers.