A significant number of successful politicians in India are/were indeed conspicuously single/unmarried. There’s no denying that a top political career in India is extremely demanding, especially the early grind in terms of time and devotion, even though everyone’s circumstances are unique.
The ‘First Spouse’ certainly plays a very important role in a country like the US. From Martha Washington to Melania Trump, the roles of almost all of America’s first ladies may be better described as ‘supportive spouses/model wives’ – the male equivalent remains untested.
Eleanor Roosevelt is certainly an exception, whose unprecedented active political role in FDR’s presidency, becoming his surrogate in many ways, maybe better explained by the physical constraints Roosevelt faced from the after-effects of polio. And Jill Biden broke the mould when she continued to teach at Northern Virginia Community College while serving as first lady.
India, meanwhile, is more or less accustomed to having single PMs. In India, an unmarried leader is sometimes portrayed as being committed to public life and carrying little baggage. Given that electorates frequently support the idea, politicians often don’t hesitate to flaunt their singlehood by declaring that nothing else can stand between them and their service to state or country.
‘I have no family ties, I am single. Who will I be corrupt for?’ Narendra Modi had famously said during his prime ministerial campaign in 2014. ‘Chamaari hoon, kunwari hoon, tumhari hoon’ (I’m low caste, single, and yours), Mayawati urged the electorate in 2012. After Yogi Adityanath was named chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, it was argued that ‘he can work with more commitment and focus… [as] he has no family for whom he might be tempted to amass wealth through corrupt means’. Both Naveen Patnaik and Atal Bihari Vajpayee flaunted their unmarried status, claiming that no question of family rule was being indulged in.In the US (and in many other places), projecting a happy family life is part of exhibiting a leader’s strength. Politicians frequently use their spouse as a powerful political tool to help them win elections, whether it be Jacqueline Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, or Michelle Obama. Families are displayed as evidence of a candidate’s reliability in a social structure where bachelorhood may even be suspicious.
Societies are different, for sure. Edward Heath, the British prime minister in the 1970s, never married — a rare exception in that country. In his memoirs, Heath claimed that he had been too busy establishing a career after the war. Sounds like an Indian politician? Perhaps nobody was there to tell him, ‘Baat maaniye, shaadi kariye’. Well, Boris Johnson, still in a marriage, was unaccompanied by a spouse when he entered 10 Downing Street. But he did bring in a ‘First Girlfriend into No. 10 instead (whom he married during the pandemic, while in office).
A social revolution? Certainly. Today’s Britons may possibly accept that ‘personal lives are personal’, as long as ‘there won’t be any additional cost to the taxpayer’. But was this very nature closely related to Johnson’s disgraceful exit?
Former New Zealand PM Jacinda Arden, however, was much appreciated for cancelling her marriage because of pandemic restrictions last year. The French people certainly voted for a bright young man who is married to his former teacher 24 years older than him, to make Emmanuel Macron their two-time president. How would the electorates of India or the US react to a leader with a similar ‘record’? Any guesses?