Shillong: After ensuring that three of his 4 children joined politics, former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Sangma says there is nothing wrong in dynastic politics and backs Rahul Gandhi as the country's future Prime Minister.
For the record, the Sangma dynasty is Meghalaya's most powerful political family. In the matriarchal state, the Purno Sangma household is an aberration. The NCP leader who has represented Garo Hills 9 times says his family is now in the record books.
"It's a world record. In a parliamentary democracy nowhere in the world so far four members of a family have been elected at the same time. It will be in the Guinness Book of Records and we are proud," he says.
Purno's eldest son James Sangma runs an entertainment firm and was the parliamentary secretary in the NCP led government in Meghalaya.
"We feel we have been politically groomed. We were not pushed into it," says James Sangma.
Conrad Sangma, the younger son, has an IT firm and is the Leader of the Opposition in the Meghalaya assembly.
"We may have got the opportunity to be there but whether we will be there for long or not will depend on our caliber. Politics is one of the most competitive industries," says Conrad Sangma.
Agatha Sangma, the country's youngest Union minister ever, was a lawyer in the Supreme Court before she decided to join the party.
Purno Sangma, who had left the Congress party over Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue, has now made peace and says he in fact supports the Gandhi dynasty.
"I was never against the Gandhi family," says P A Sangma.
"Right from Motilal Nehru, to Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi - they have that tradition. Politics is inborn in the family and that's good for the nation. I think he [Rahul] is already a PM in making, nobody can doubt it and I will fully support his prime ministership," he adds.
So dynasties, it seems, are here to stay!
Sangma has some justification for that: "A journalist's son becomes journalist no one complains. If a cricketer's son becomes cricketer no one has a problem. So why should anyone mind if a politician's son becomes a politician?"