Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Ex-Minister Bansal Retaliates,"Should I Explain the definition of my family"?


The Ex-Minister Bansal Retaliates, “should I explain the definition of my family”? It is really difficult to define an Indian family, more so a business family, in common parlance. As Bansal’s sons and daughters are adults and have their separate occupations and line of business, the real family of Bansal would consist of himself and his wife only. This is Bansal’s micro family and no bribe scam can be assigned to him in true sense of the term of a family. But how Bansal would define a household? His concept of a household would consist of the number of Kitchens he allows to run under a roof or as he has been registered along with the members of family in the register of the national census 2011. Again, what is Bansal’s concept of his Undivided Hindu Family? How will he legally define it? Certainly, he must come forward to explain it in business terms as the people of India would like to know it. He is a public man and the nation needs to know about him in details. The fact is that Bansal does not belong to the modern micro family. He neither believes it nor does he practice it. He belongs to a clan, a member of an extended family which includes brothers, sisters, daughters, daughter-in-laws, sons, son-in-laws, nephew, nephew’s nephew, and many more relatives. There is nothing wrong in belonging to such an extended family. It represents the true spirit of Indian culture of unity and solidarity. But politics does recognize Bansal’s family as a clan which might have in possession not less than fifty members including children. This clan is an asset to Bansal who helps in his constituency for election campaigning. It is true that this clan as such has nothing to do with ‘bribe scandal’. However, a few members of this extended family have come close, closer and closest to Bansal in dealing with railways affairs. Bansal may or may not be aware of this fact, but if OSD is related to him, even distantly, it creates suspicion. The CBI deals with individuals not family. Individual cases are framed and individual charge sheet is submitted. It is only in relation to social and political atmosphere that people link Bansal to his extended family. If Bansal needs to define his family, he must explain the various concepts of Indian family, extended family, household, Hindu undivided family, including the concept of Bansal-clan of which he is a well recognized patriarch.

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