75 years after the British left India, who would have thought that there can be parallel crisis like situations in two royal families, i.e., the royal family of the United Kingdom, and the royal family of Bihar, Lalu’s family.
On Thursday, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan decided to pull out from the luxury of royal life, and the royalty tag. This comes after months of rift among brothers, Prince William and Harry, who, post the marriage of the latter, have not been sharing the best of relations. Prince William, being the elder sibling, is next in line after Prince Charles to the kingship. Further, William has three children, who will be the next rightful heirs of the crown. Only then does Prince Harry feature on the list. As such, Harry is the sixth in line for getting hold of the crown. This, as it may seem, pretty much means that Harry will not be King in this lifetime. As such, withdrawal from the royal family and leading their own lives seemed a more promising option to the former royal couple.
Similarly, the ‘royal family’ of Lalu in Bihar too is going through an emotional crisis of sorts. Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of Lalu and occasional fancy-dress enthusiast also decided to resign from his post of sanrakshak of the RJD’s student wing in March last year. Tej’s relationship with his wife, Aishwarya Rai has also been rocky, with him filing for divorce barely six months after having tied the knot. Aishwarya, a Lady Shree Ram College alumnus, married an 11th standard dropout Tej Pratap in 2018. Then, Yadav made the following allegation against his family, “Everyone in my family is supporting the girl [Aishwarya]…I am not in touch with her for more than one month now. But now suddenly she has come back home and is getting support from my family members…There is definitely a conspiracy behind all this and some of my family members are also involved in this.” Only last month, Aishwarya also filed cases of physical and mental torture against Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti and Tej Pratap, and also alleged that Rabri Devi pulled her by the hair and threw her out of the house.
There is an eerie similarity between Prince Harry and Prince Tej Pratap. The marriages of both have been the foundational basis of them parting ways with their families. When Prince Harry married Meghan, an American actress, he did so much to the surprise, perhaps even the disapproval of his family. Similarly, Tej Pratap’s marriage also led to his divorce with not only his wife, but also his family. Therefore, Tej is a Harry, in an inverted fashion. While Harry married as per his choice, Tej was forced to marry someone who the family thought would get them political benefits.
Both Harry and Tej, furthermore, are not heirs to their family legacy. Lalu Prasad has pretty much given the control of RJD into the hands of his younger son, Tejaswi Yadav. Here too, Harry and Tej are similar as opposites, if that makes any sense. While Tej is the elder son, he won’t be heir to his father’s throne, while Harry, being the younger one, will automatically not be an immediate owner of the crown. Moreover, both are being cold-shouldered by their brothers.
As such, both Harry and Tej will now be able to lead their own lives, as they choose to. While Harry is planning to settle in North America with his wife and child, Tej Pratap must be planning his next outfit for upcoming fancy dress competitions.