India declared it as a Republic on 26th January, 1950. Our bitter experience with the Foreign monarch led us to go for Constitutional Republic. But really are we constitutional Republic in true sense ? Have we really stopped patronizing the King ships in our country?
I was reading The Hindu newspaper and astonished with the news related to coronation of king in Republic India. I am referring to the newly declared Maharaja of Jaipur , Padamnabh Singh who is just 12 years old. I was shocked with the apathy of all Media towards our Republic institution publishing this Article on their front pages - "New Maharaja of Jaipur". I was really shocked when our elected representatives like Vasundhara Raje , Bina kak also attended that coronation.
Prior to Independence we had 572 small and big states in British India. After Independence, Our constitution had abolished the Kingship and all Titles - like Bahadur and Maharaja under Article 18 but still this custom is continuing. Initially these kings were given privy purses - payment made to the royal families of erstwhile princely states as part of their agreements to first integrate with India in 1947, and later to merge their states in 1949 whereby they lost all ruling rights. Constitutional Amendment of 1971, implemented after a two year legal battle, was passed, which ended this custom of privy purses, privileges and allowances from the Central Government. But our government failed to check the properties of these royals. Still these royal amass lot of wealth and property which is actually the symbol of patronizing royals by our democratic government. They have still occupied no. of forts which are now converted into 5 star heritage hotels and have become a continuous source of huge income for these royals.
Now lets discuss about our government itself. Most of the current national parties are giving platform to these royals to enter politics. In congress we have Jyotiraditya scindia , Digvijyay Singh , Virbhadra Singh, Karan singh, Amarinder Singh , Kunwar Singh and many local kings. On the other hand BJP is patronizing Vasundhara Raje and others. They were ruling us prior to Independence and continue to rule after that. Dynasty politics has now become the part and parcel of Indian polity borrowed from our royals. Dynasty rule which was supposed to be King's rule has become a democratic rule. This is a new version of Monarchy - a Democratic Monarchy.
These royals are responsible for the degeneration of Internal democracy of the national parties. A party-man who is a commoner, if he wants to join politics , he has to start at councilor or Sarpanch level but these royals enter politics directly at MP level or MLA level and are directly chosen as a minister in the cabinet because of their closeness with the party hi-commands. Because of them sometimes a genuine candidate will be overlooked by the party hi command in giving party tickets for elections. Now in India, Party-hi command has final say in every thing at local level, many time they go against the wishes of the local party workers and forcefully nominate some alien leader on them. Their protest is ignored and also sometimes hi-command threaten to expel them from the party.
We people elect these royal as our representative which is a irony. Four of our ex- CMs are royals. Many ministers belong to royal family. Last year, king of Jodhpur had lavishly organised the royal durbar for his son's wedding. Last year, one royal butchered one beggar by his car in Jaipur, no action was taken against him and media also didn't cover it properly.
I can't keep my eyes close and watch this pseudo-monarchy existing in India. SC should show some Judicial activism against such coronations and government should declare these Fort cum Heritage hotels and other wealth as national property.
My protest starts here !!!
