Emerging Trends in Indian Politics

The paradox of Indian democracy is that enlightened middle class has shown indifferent attitude
towards electoral process. In the era of globalization, he is so deeply involved to fulfill his
unending quench for attaining material pleasure that he fails to realize his larger national
responsibility. This raises the question that when the most educated and enlightened group will
fail to fulfill their national obligation then how can we expect our political system to improve
automatically.

In western democracy, highly educated and successful groups not only take part in electoral
process but also put pressure on government through various pressure groups and also by
forming civil society groups on a large scale, whereas in India, people belonging to middle and
upper class maintain indifferent attitude and people belonging to lower social, economic,
educational background register their participation in large number. For the success of
democracy, the participation of have and have not is equally required.

If we analyze the prevailing trend in Indian democracy, we find that on the one hand electoral
process has raised the level of political awareness and on the other hand it has also increased the
misuse of electoral process by political parties for their narrow ends. Winning election has
become the sole criteria for political parties. In order to win election, political parties
compromise with values, ethics and morality which used to be associated with it. It has further
consolidated primordial values. In this process, they fail to realize that they have larger national
responsibility as well. The kind of tactics applied by political parties for winning election has
promoted casteism, communalism, regionalism, sectarianism and above all use of money, muscle
power and criminalization of politics.

It has weakened the base of Indian politics. In fact, this has become an accepted feature of Indian
politics. No political party is ready to discuss this issue that what should be done to do away with
such malpractices. Even, Indian public too cannot escape from its responsibility as they are
electing people who are of dubious credentials. Quest for power has laid to the erosion of values
from Indian politics.

Conducting free and fair election is the responsibility of the Election Commission and it has been
working hard to live up to its constitutional obligation. Due to the effort of the commission,
electoral violence, misuse of money, bogus voting have been substantially reduced. The
oppressed and deprived section of our population who could not even dare to go to polling booth,
are electing their representative without any fear. However, it would be too early to say that in
India, free and fair election has been totally established.

Coming to the second theme of the present paper, i.e. party system. It is closely associated with
electoral politics. Maurice Duverger aptly defined that electoral system leaves its impression on
the political life of the country through political parties only. In Indian competitive party system,
political partys gains power through competitive electoral battle. In order to win election,
political parties, indulge in all sorts of manoeverality like arousing passion in the name of caste,
region, religion etc. In fact, political parties have compromised with ideology in order to gain
power. Over the years, one finds a marked change in the way party system operates in India.

The party system is now said to be moving from a one party dominance system to a multi-party
competition, from social cohesion to fragmentation, from a stable pattern to fluidity, from order
to chaos as the principle of party competition. One party dominance has been replaced by
coalition government. It has led to the emergence of regional centers of power. Regional political
parties are playing very crucial role in the national politics.
Initially, Congress party played a very vital role in shaping Indian party system. However, it
cannot escape from the responsibility of decay that has set in Indian party system as it is the
oldest political party in India. The catch- all character of the Congress party won helped it to
win election, without forcing any change in its policies or leadership pattern. The Congress party
was supported by masses from diverse background but as pointed out by Yogendra Yadav, the
partys upper class- upper caste leadership remained the legitimate representative of the masses.

Congress system was not open to vulnerable section and this may be due to the background of
the political class. Charismatic personality of Nehru helped it to remain in power till the end of
the decade of sixties. In 1967, serious challenge to Congress dominance emerged and its
hegemony as a dominant party was challenged. Its ability to accommodate dissent got challenged
forcing many groups to break away.

When Mrs. Gandhi came in power and started facing challenge, in order to consolidate her
position she decided to centralize the power.Mrs. Gandhis slogan of Garibi Hatao won her vote
as well as support. However, her style of functioning and dependence on Kitchen Cabinet
alienated her from other party leaders. It laid to revolt by many national leaders including
regional leadership. Rajiv Gandhis appearance on the political map of India was under
extraordinary circumstances. It re-established one- party dominance. However; his support base
started dwindling once his name appeared in Bofors deal.

Congress to post- Congress transformation was never an easy process. However, it led to the
establishment of coalition government. The emergence of NDA followed by UPA led to the
changed pattern of representation. Those regions/ communities which were feeling deprived,
their sentiment was used by regional leaders to form regional parties. These regional parties now
have become so strong that they are playing deciding role in the formation of central
government.

The most important factor responsible for the change in federal political arrangement is
nationalization of regional issues and regionalization of national issues and it is largely because
modernization, politicization and economic development and on the other hand because of
mandal-mandir controversy. In post 1989 period we observe a new trend towards regionalization
of Indian politics and it reflects the representative character of Indian polity. It has also brought
those into the center stage of Indian politics who were left on the margins.

In fact, regional parties have mushroomed in Indian politics in large numbers in recent years.
However barring few states, they have not brought about substantial change and in many states,
state governments were replaced by national parties. However some regional governments like
the one in Bihar and Orissa have shown the path.

In India, party system has covered a long journey from one party dominance to coalition
government. And in this process democracy has further got consolidated. Coalition governments,
which are generally associated with instability, inordinate delay are after initial hiccup running
successfully. Change is imminent in party system and Indian democracy is no exception to this.
However the question arises as to whether it has consolidated democratic roots or it reflects the
misuse of political system for narrow selfish purpose.

Emerging Trends:

Democracy has deepened further in last sixty years in India and its credibility has vindicated
itself. Participation of weaker section especially S.C. and S.T. has increased manifold thereby
consolidating democratic process. The pattern of representation to Loksabha and Rajyasabha
reflects that every segment of the population is getting represented.
Earlier, only educated middle class used to get chance to be elected as peoples representative.
However, in recent years, the trend has changed and women, S.C., S.T. and farmers too, are
getting chance to contest and win election. Political participation of minorities, Scheduled caste
and Scheduled Tribes have increased. One party dominance and its ill-effects are things of the
past. Regional parties are ruling in many states and also part of ruling alliance at the central
government. Defection, President rule, election related violence etc. have become a rarity. Right
to information, Right to education, Panchyati Raj act have really empowered and enlightened the
common public.

However it does not mean that all the changes had positive impact only. If we minutely analyze
Indian electoral politics as well as party system, we find that along with some positive changes
there is some negative development as well. The vote bank politics has laid to the decline of
moral values from our politics. Caste, region, religion still plays decisive role in electoral
politics.

Democracy not only ensures adult franchise but also ensures participation in political process.
The question is whether Indian democracy has truly ensured the participation of every segment
of the population in electoral process. Unless the fruits of democratic success are not shared with
deprived and poorer section of the population, the goal of democracy cannot be said to be
realized. In Indian context, the worrying aspect is that pace of development is very slow.

Institutions which are considered essential for its successful functioning have declined over the
years. For example, electoral system, despite serious effort has failed to invent any device to
check the entry of anti- social elements in entering into electoral process which questions its
legitimacy. Political parties still involve themselves in immoral practices in order to win election
which goes against the democratic spirit. In order to gain political power, they always make use
of primordial loyalties like caste, religion, region etc. The basic livelihood issues like
unemployment, poverty eradication and other such issues have gone to the backburner.

Normally in a healthy democratic setup, elections are contested on issues relating to problems
affecting people. However, in Indian democracy, it seems as a chimera. On the whole, Indian
democracy is passing through a transitional phase and the pace of change is very fast. On the one
hand many issues have been addressed, some new issues have cropped up and some old issues
remain to be resolved. The need of the hour is that divisive tendencies are closely monitored and
evaluated and long term and lasting strategy should be devised to address the socio- economic
problem then only we would be able to establish a successful, egalitarian republic. Finally, in the
words of eminent historian, Ramchandra Guha, it can be said, that Indian democracy is a work in
progress and therefore we will have to wait and watch for new developments especially in the
field of party system and electoral politics in India.