YPOST

The Missing Peace Among the Pieces

“Nearly all men can stand adversity; but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln.

 India, stand among one of the superiors, when it comes to democracy. People here, have enjoyed democracy for years together. But as and when the country got divided increasing the number of states and regions there had been sharp growth in regional parties. Evidently, the former and the later are directly proportional. Divisions of political parties have further complicated the whole political scenario. Due to such increase of the parties, based on aspirations of political leaders the mandate of people got divided widely leading to fractured mandate. 

    Well, the present situation, has come to a stage when no political party is confident enough to win the majority seats in the election. And is likely to form a government only with the help of other like minded parties. The Coalition government formed with the support of several other parties become totally dependent on the support of their allies. And cannot take bold decisions whenever the same is needed. An eminent point that is to be kept in mind is the situation should not lead to the juncture of autocracy.

    The coalition government can only run when the constituent parties agree to follow a common agenda. The growth of regional parties in India, have created confusion among voters and the majority of the voters especially in the rural areas are totally confused and go by the dictums of the local leaders. This voting pattern have become very common in the recent years due to which the political scenario of the country has been drastically affected by the fractured mandate; leading to clear  ‘instability’ in forming or running the government.

      There are countries who boast for democracy, but, well, in reality there is autocracy in the name of democracy. No individual party has got the option to move as per their own will. It is bound to move to the same direction. And as soon as the as the same is detached, the whole game breaks.

     For an example, if such coalition government is compared to a moving train, the same gets derailed if any of the bogies try to move out of the track. So they jointly decide who will be the engine of the train. As time is rolling, the issues based on which people cast their votes have become divergent leading to fractured voting pattern. The question is exactly based on ‘what’, relying on ‘whom’ and ‘why’ will the citizens of this country cast their valuable votes? Consequently, The government is prevented from moving ahead firmly, leading to slow poisoning of the whole system.

       The recent happening in Delhi;  ‘ Aam aadmi party’ (AAP) did not get the majority in forming the government on their own and had to take support from Congress. Said government while trying to implement their objectives could not move ahead since their ally did not come forward and ultimately the government had to resign within months. For growth and development of a country ‘stable government’ is a must! And the same definitely cannot be achieved by a fractured mandate. Coalition government owned by fractured mandate are always dependent on the coalition parties and at times subjected to ‘blackmailing’ against the interest of the general public.

       There are plenty of bad symptoms at present, that can easily darken the destiny of Indian democracy. Neither regional political clusters nor autocracy would be beneficial the country, but to equate the balance carefully. People of the country, exercising their voting rights should be made aware of the consequences of fractured mandate for a proper growth of the country and justice to its people.

Few informal feed backs:

1) “Well, Regional Parties though remain hyped, can act as small catalytic drops of efforts and awareness which push the bigger ones. They stand as check spots on the highway of democracy, if tackled wisely. But the present political situations of our country, seem to lead to a totally inconceivable path due to which the citizens are the main sufferers.”

Says Swetha Sri Venkatesh; St. Xavier’s college, Calcutta.

2) “Honestly no, i don’t support the excessive division of the parties. Which is causing a lot of confusion these days. The people are confused and are bound to face the complications when it comes to voting. Rather than creating a huge number of new small parties, the flaws in the already existing ones needs to be worked on and move forward.”

Says Titash Ghosh; Jadavpur University.

3) “I think if regional parties get more power than national parties in LS , then national integrity might not be maintained as the regional parties would be more interested in development of their own positions and states. The scenario would be more of self-centred than that of general public service.”

According to, Shaoni Ghosh; Presidency college.

Snigdha Nag

M.Sc Media P.G 1