Lessons from democracy

India leapt from colony to democracy in 1947 but since 1966 has drifted into quasi-feudocracy. Both Feroze and Nehru would have been dismayed at the fawning culture of servitude that wafts around not only in today's Congress but most Indian political parties. Both men took pride in the independence of individual Congressmen: from that independence flowed the strength of Indian democracy. Today, democracy stands compromised by the nepotic internal structure of the Congress and its regional clones like the DMK, TDP, SP, JD(S) and NCP. If you look hard enough, it is this nepotism and feudocracy that underpin chronic political misgovernance of which Karnataka is only a particularly virulent symptom.