Is BJP promoting dynasty politics?

CVoter-Indiatracker did a quick survey on the issue to find out what the country thinks about dynasty politics

In his address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on 76th Independence Day, prime minister Narendra Modi cited “parivaarvaad” and “bhai bhatijaawaad” — a reference to dynastic politics and nepotism — as one of the two major challenges facing India. "All will have to come together to carry forward ‘bharatvaad' (favouring nation) to take the country on the path of development as neither 'parivaarvaad' nor ‘dostvaad' will do any good to the country," he said.

His statement did not went well with the opposition who slammed the prime minister and the BJP while pointing out that BJP too is “full of dynasts” and it is the people who choose and elect leaders. "When he talks about dynastic politics why does he forget about its own dynasties like Piyush Goyal, Anurag Thakur and even those like Suvendu Adhikari, who joined from other parties", the Congress party said in a statement.

CVoter-Indiatracker did a quick survey on the issue to find out what the country thinks about dynasty politics. The respondents were asked do they agree with the opposition accusing the BJP of promoting dynasty politics. We got mixed results with 47 percent reacting positively while 52 percent said BJP is not promoting dynastic politics.

As the accompanying chart shows, Indians across age, gender, educational, income, religious and ethnic backgrounds backed Narendra Modi's reference to dynastic politics. 47 percent youth (18-24 age group) and 48 percent senior citizens believed it is the opposition and not the BJP that is supporting dynasty. More females compared to males were reportedly in the anti-dynastic politics mood. 53 percent females accused the opposition of promoting dynastic politics as compared to 51 percent males.

Although we saw a mixed pattern in ethnic groups. 69 percent dalits and 63 percent Muslims supported opposition's accusation. On the other hand, the support among upper caste Hindus and Tribals was 33 and 46 percent respectively. If we talk about political supporters, 62 percent of UPA voters and 30 percent of NDA supporters responded in favour of opposition.

Clearly, the data suggests not many supported opposition's argument of BJP promoting dynastic politics. Since 2014, many BJP leaders have frequently commented on ‘dynasty-mukt Bharat’ with particular reference to the Gandhi family. If we take the election results in the past years, they have been pretty successful in delivering this message among the masses. This survey is just a reflection of it.