It seems elections in India are increasingly becoming presidential. Certain leaders are becoming larger than the party itself. As a result, there is a lot of mudslingings, vitiating the whole political discourse of the country. It takes a toll on the voter who is left with the option of only choosing a leader rather than a party or its programmes.
After Independence, till mid-nineties, before the BJP emerged into prominence, we had two major political blocks – one represented by Congress and the other parties opposed to the Congress. With all consciousness, reference is not being made on the Communists as they have clearly failed to stay relevant in the political landscape though they managed to come into power in three states. Non-Congress parties again have changed their forms, shapes and narratives depending on numerous factors most prominent being the political expediency and it’s by and large known to everyone following Indian politics. However, a surge of regional parties over the time with a mask of people’s movement with so-called great cause of furthering local interests have emerged as an important player to make the game more unpredictable on the ground. At times it’s no less than a cocktail of groups having very little commonalities at any level.
At the national level, we have two political formulations — NDA led by the BJP and UPA led by the Congress. The constitution of these coalitions only will be clear after the forthcoming general elections. NDA came to power in 2014 for a variety of reasons and most importantly the poor governance by the previous regime manifested by the state of near anarchy, rampant malpractices, misuse of positions of power and above all extra-constitutional authority calling the shots. The country has still not forgotten how Rahul Gandhi tore the ordinance paper moved by the Manmohan Singh government during a press conference. It was interesting to watch in 2014 how NDA got its act together under the stewardship of Narendra Modi and the outcome was a landslide victory unprecedented after 1984 when Rajiv Gandhi formed government immediately post-assassination of Indira Gandhi though many believed and rightfully so that sympathy poured in and not that Congress as a party did something magical to win a mandate of that size! In the Congress scheme of things, none outside the family could rise to the helm of affairs and the fate of those who were appointed Congress presidents without the blessings of the ‘family’ is well-known. This speaks volumes of internal democracy being practised by Congress.
Once a movement later becoming a mainstream political party advocating the idea of India acceptable to many is now known for forgetting the founding principles and taking shelter under falsehood leading to lack of public patronage. An all-out attempt to confuse the nation about a particular strategic defence procurement is a classic case in hand. It accuses BJP of practising divisive politics, creating fear among people, religious minorities in particular. We have also seen how a section of the highest judiciary opted for holding an unprecedented press conference at the behest of opposition with the moral support of the so-called liberals. All such manufactured issues might help build a case against the government of the day and help its rivals electorally in some Assembly elections. But these victories will not absolve them of their commissions and omissions in the past many decades. No one is disputing that there are no issues or shortcomings: issues of agrarian distress, unemployment and under-employment, inadequate streamlining of financial sectors specifically functioning of public sector banks are areas of serious concern. But the current government has been able to roll out many corrective initiatives.
Like Congress, most of the regional parties have become family enterprises. The baton of leadership is often passed on to the heirs or relatives. As far as internal democracy is concerned, the BJP fares better than the rest.
(Continued in Part-II)
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