The Dhritarashtra syndrome

49

Even clever political heavyweights are blind about their sons. There is a well-known syndrome in Indian politics known as the Dhritarashtra syndrome. Last week as expelled Samajwadi Party heavyweight Amar Singh held forth on the fate that has befallen the Samajwadi Party and listed his grievances in exhaustive detail, it became clear that once again another political "outsider" had fallen victim to the Dhritarashtra syndrome. The blind parent, blindly partial to his own bloodline, usually alienates the second-in-command. In a fit of self-destructiveness, he fatally damages his own political achievements and legacy by becoming intent on anointing his son. Dhritarashtra, the blind king of Hastinapur has many 21st century avatars. The spirit of Dhritarashtra enters the bodies of men, who are always clever politicians who have built political parties, yet men who throw their cleverness to the winds, when it comes to the political future of their....