Author: Nikita Sharma, II Year of B.A.,LL.B, from Indore Institute of law, Indore
INTRODUCTION
Whenever we talk about the word nepotism, it differs person to person how they are taught about this word, hence 1st of all, Nepotism is generally defined as "the bestowal of support by public officers in appointing others to positions because of blood or marital relationship". It exists almost everywhere in the world, however in India it is found to be a bit too much. As stated by Rahul Gandhi, “Nepotism is a culture in India". likewise, we can say that Nepotism is a product of nepotists; means- powerful or well-established people giving preferential treatment to their relatives and friends in employment irrespective of their qualifications, whereas showing intolerance to outsiders. It makes stress in the workplace and increases dissatisfaction among the staff about their organizations which indirectly leads to self-criticism, self-uncertainty and retardation.
Now two questions arise how it’s good in the politics? And how it’s bad for the politics?
As the 1st question asks how it’s good in politics. So consider you are in high position and your any family member, friends are capable for this post then it’s very genuine that you want them in your post so that is not nepotism that is kind of human nature even the judge sitting there, even I speaking the speech or even the people who are my competitor, even they also have this human tendency to keep themselves survived in race of the world because if they will grow then they will help other to rise, so this is just supporting your own system and the word nepotism mean extreme privileges those who are not capable for the post, so there is a difference between providing privilege or providing opportunities.
Providing opportunities to family and friends has become nepotism that has changed the definition which is basically wrong if we give over privilege then it will consider as nepotism, but now people include this also in nepotism which is totally wrong.
Hence nepotism will be a proper advantage if it is observed honesty, higher level of loyalty, higher level of the moral in political parties, even they work with more dedication because they were born and rise in such environment from childhood. For an example one person who has talent but not known by anyone struggle allot to come forward but if the person is some relatives or friends can represent themselves from the beginning like Amit shah son Jay Shah have ability to represent cricket team and now he is representing our BCCI in the international level.
So now we got an idea about positive nepotism now coming to the second question i.e. how it’s bad? As I already said providing extreme privilege to friend and family member will be considered as a nepotism because if you appoint an unskilled leader in the higher position inspire unfair treatment to those who truly deserve the position. Nepotism establishes a sense of unfairness and biasness and this will directly affect the party’s performance.
Now in any Indian political parties you can see the nepotism, and this raises the issue of negative point of nepotism in politics because giving undue advantage to someone who doesn’t necessarily merit this treatment then it will directly or indirectly impact democratic, social and economic development of India. Even an unskilled person who has zero knowledge about the work can’t take a good decision for the nation, any of their wrong decision will directly impact to the nation.
EXPERT VIEW ON NEPOTISM
In the book of the Kural literature, which forms a manual for governments and corporations, Valluvar suggests about nepotism and favouritism thus: "If you choose an unfit person for your job just because you love and you like him, he will lead you to endless follies." According to him, nepotism is both evil and unwise.
CONCLUSION
In simple terms, nepotism is favouritism granted in politics or business to relatives, or we can say the practice of appointing relatives and friends in one’s organisation to positions for which outsiders might be better qualified. But it is not always true what we see because we consider nepotism so real that why not understand it with a real fact-based example, i.e.,
when an actor's child becomes an actor, we call it nepotism. On contrary, when a labour's child becomes a labour, why don't we call it nepotism too. We don't do so because we consider labour to be a low-profile job while being an actor is way too high-profile stuff.
Now we get a clear idea what nepotism means. So nepotism is equally good and bad for the society. But as per my study, nepotism is not limited to any particular field, be it business, politics, sports, entertainment, job or any.