How PM NaMo will destroy dynasties without firing a bullet

Note:  I write this as a silent wave of frustration is building up within India’s Internet Hindus (easily NaMo’s most ardent supporters).  Hopefully what follows will help explain NaMo long term plan to vanquish political dynasties

Putra/Putri Prem lies at the heart of India’s burgeoning Dynasty problem.  Or so goes the conventional wisdom.  “Every doctor wants his son to become a doctor, ever movie star wants the same for his child so why can’t a politician harbor the same dream for his offspring.”

A deeper analysis behind this phenomenon reveals a different dynamic at play.  More importantly PM Narendra Modi is likely to use this very structural flaw to permanently decimate Congress and its clones.

Over the past 25 years, almost every political dynasty across India has acquired wealth beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.  Every sector ranging from water and oil to road construction is now controlled by local mafias promoted and supported by these dynasties.  More importantly this disease has infected every political outfit.

Wealth acquired through these channels cannot be held within legal structures.  This is illegal income and the very act of earning and holding it is by definition a criminal offense.

Prior to 1991 this wealth was limited in its scope.  A liberalizing Indian economy offered a wide gamut of new avenues for looting the nation which in turn led to an exponential growth in holdings of those who controlled India’s politically managed economy.

Though private players were allowed to enter heretofore government controlled corners of India’s economy, the minutiae remained within confines of Governments mandated policies and procedures.

As the disease spread to all political outfits, Indian voters were left with little to choose from.  Caste, religion and other extraneous factors trumped good, clean governance.

A comatose Indian polity only encouraged India’s political leadership to crank up its brazenness.

From being gatekeepers, India’s political leadership graduated into partners and promoters of private enterprise.  Through a complex web of front organizations and individuals India’s political leaders not only facilitated private firms in looting the nation but came to own a significant chunk of the loot.

This arrangement worked well till the mid-2000s.  A few forces upset the applecart and triggered a new imbalance.  This imbalance explains the panic engendered by the rise of NaMo.

1. Technology and Hackers:
   1. Till the early 2000s, numbered, offshore accounts were a safe bet.  A series of hacks and exposures by insiders destroyed confidence in this, the most preferred refuge for illegal wealth from across the World
2. Activist Governments
   1. Uncle Sam cracked down on American citizens who had siphoned away their wealth into Swiss accounts and more importantly, forced gilt-edged, exalted financial institutions to part with their most intimate financial secrets
   2. An increasingly well informed global citizenry has forced even small countries to successfully sue tax havens and recover money held in these over protected havens
   3. Bottom-line: India’s looters can run but they can no longer hide in these traditional tax havens
3. Cash is a weak financial instrument
   1. There are only a handful of asset classes which can stay a step ahead of inflation
   2. Held in cash, wealth erodes at 5-6% a year i.e. within 10 years value of cash would he halved
   3. With monetary instruments becoming digitized, hiding cash in a mattress is about the only way to hold it away from gaze of public prosecutors
   4. Its liquid nature makes it difficult to protect from taxmen and unscrupulous operators
4. Loyal crooks are hard to find
   1. Traditionally, Political leaders have used loyal family retainers to act as honest front men who would hold the wealth in their names and away from public scrutiny
   2. This arrangement worked well when the numbers were relatively manageable
   3. But managing billions is difficult for even the most well connected drug lord, much less for a political leader with everything to lose

And that brings us to the biggest chink in Congress and Sonia’s armor.

It is one thing to remain loyal when dealing with a few crores but quite another when the numbers are several hundred times in magnitude.  With the very act of keeping records endangering wealth and wealthy alike, loyalty (of your front men) is the only glue that ensures security for this wealth.

According to Dr. Swamy Indians lost over $8 billion held in Swiss accounts as no one showed up to claim it after the mandatory 7 year (inactivity) period.

India’s high and mighty (as with their brethren across the globe) are now caught in a dilemma.  How do you hold, grow and secure ill-gotten wealth.

Whereas business leaders can pay taxes and penalties to escape wrath of the Taxman, political leaders have a much higher price to pay.  A conviction will render them politically irrelevant (see Laloo Prasad Yadav)

It is these forces which have forced a Robert Vadra (post 2006-07) to take an active role in owning wealth and going ‘legit’ with political corruption.

Even a novice could tell you that Vadra and his in-laws were playing with political fire.  But the brazenness is explained by the aforementioned combination of factors. 

Their hubris has given PM NaMo an opening to permanently vanquish India’s most dominant political dynasty and in doing so he will lay the ground work to usher India into a new era of freedom.  Freedom from Brown Sahib political dynasties.

Power is the only vault that protects politically acquired blood money.  An extended stay out of power which in turn engenders a sense of political eclipse will break any fear that political dynasties can instill in their front men.

If people and party members are convinced that a Supriya sule or Rahul Gandhi will never wield power again, the protective ring falls apart.

Sans power, there’s no guarantee of family wealth remaining in the hands of future generations.

As team NaMo-Shah electorally vanquishes political dynasties in state after state, the protective ring of political power will begin eroding.  This erosion will lead to rebellion within the club of the family retainers.

A Natwar Singh or Sharad Pawar will rise up against the dynasty, declare a rebellion and start their own parties to capture the loot and keep it for themselves.

This NaMo triggered civil war will decimate political dynasties more than any judicial action or hunting expedition.