There is the obvious kind of caste bias in Indian Politics, and perhaps in most countries in the world, where voters flock towards representatives who are form their own caste (religion).
There is an understanding that there will be tacit support for any representative from within his/her community as the common factor of religion will be glorified and abused during the polls i.e. Caste based voting
This emphasis on voting for a representative based on his/her religion is a corrosive practice which destablizes democracies and does not allow the best person to succeed.
But there is a different and perhaps equally corrosive habit in Indian Politics and it too is based in caste.
The caste system does not only specify one’s religion & social standing; for many years it also specified one’s profession. Families led the same profession for years, Printers son’s were printer’s, teacher’s sons were teacher’s, doctors children were doctor’s and so on.
In a similar vein, there is a tacit understanding and acceptance of politician’s kid’s becoming politicians.
This is a relic of the caste system which no-one wants to address least of all the those who benefit from it.
Does a politician’s son/daughter make a good politician, Does an actor’s son/daughter make a good actor.
What is it with the Indian Psyche that presupposes that the children possess the talents of their parents (were the parents even good at their jobs), and doesn’t this blind our judgement.
Maybe 10% of hollywood actors have actor parents, In India it’s closer to 90%.
Again close to 7-9% of the US congress have connections to an ex-congressmen. In india the figure is closer to 40%.
The numbers are again high in the IPS, IAS, Indian Chartered Accountants, Indian Doctors Association and many other public & private bodies and often the reason for choosing the line of work is that you are guaranteed to be selected because of your parents.
The list is long and runs across all professions and social strata,we all know father-son/daughter teams at work.
In my opinion this is not a criteria that we should be bothered about (parents profession) and least of all make our decisions based on it. The best candidate based on his/her credentials will never get the job and eventually we will be left with a weak and in-bred system.