All rich and powerful have one big concern and question, who will succeed after them and how well ? Will he able to take legacy ahead ?
Life is changing fast , so our social values. Earlier power or money used to stay with one family for long. Now it just slips away as untrained successor have no clear plan or skill. Longest surviving legacies have few examples in recent history like Mughals ruler of India, Queen of England, Congress party of India, or TATA group of India. Power. Money. or legacy passed from one generation to another smoothly.
It is Irony that such examples are rare in world which has tendency to store or accumlate money or power. Riches come and go and money change hands. Transition between generations is not easy. Legacy dies with one man or his next generation. Take any field whether money, art , sports, acting, or science, their next generation takes it differently. Either they lack skills or don’t know the game. Einstein, Edison or Tesla they all were one generation show. Their kids did not take legacy ahead.
We can divide this topic in two parts – Art, acting, sport, science etc are single player game. It is very hard to transfer to next generation. On other hand Power and money are difficult to accumulate yet easy to pass on to next generation. Let’s restrict legacy of power and money in our scope of discussion.
Most political parties in India are now family business. They are running show on goodwill of forefathers. They are soft and guided like Uddav, Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh or Tejhshwi Yadav. On other side non family politicians are solo type ,as global leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, or Putin are example of such solo players and have no family background as such. They were ruthless in ambitions. Most of them lost their fate in one generation only.
Systems and processes keep power intact. TATA group is one example which is running successfully for past three generations. Reliance Group got some hick up in power transfer. We saw a legal war and now third generation is ready to take over.
Indian national congress is classic case of surviving long history. It kept power most of the times after independence of India. Seeing sad end of AIDMK leader Jayalalithaa’s legacy, all went away in just one generation. Others lusty people took over both money and power. Mayawati is facing similar issue and Mamta Banerjee is also on same wicket. Without no clear succession, people grab power and divide among themselves. All hard work of many years slips away.
Balashaeb Thackrey created a brand and now many are claiming their own like Uddhav, Raj, or Eknath SInde. Legacy is dying a slow death.
It is big subject and let’s discuss in series, it is first part to discuss background and need. Let’s discuss some good and bad examples of succession in next few sessions.
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