Vote For A Street Car Named ‘Coalition’
Coalition in
politics is not a new concept. It is quite common and widely practiced in
Europe. In India too, gone are the days of a single party dominance.
Coalitions, these days, are an inevitable by-product of Indian political
system, of which, every common man in the street are well aware and no one
raises an eye-brow about the same. But before we get into further details, let
us find out, what does ‘coalition’ actually mean? What does it signify?
The term
‘coalition’ signifies a political grouping of different parties with an aim to
influence policy decisions. The ultimate objective is to secure power and to
rule the country. However, we all know that in politics nothing are permanent
and the equations, there, change every now and then according to the given
situation. It is universally accepted that in the political arena, a friend
today, could an enemy tomorrow. Keeping that in mind, it is understandable,
that ‘Coalitions’ or alliances between the different political parties are also
a kind of understanding of a temporary nature. So long the parties involved are
mutually benefitted, the ‘coalition’ continues.
In fact, given the different ideology, different agenda and different
priorities of the parties of a coalition group, nobody really can anticipate
when alliance will fall apart.
But, despite the fragile nature of
coalition politics, the people in general have accepted it as a reality. The
fact is, since the 1990s no single party has won an absolute majority in the
national polls. To be precise, India has entered an era of coalition politics
since 1989. According to the political
analysts, the main reason behind the same is the rise of regional parties. Given
India’s diverse cultural, linguistic and religious traditions – it was only but
logical for the people to lay their faith in different regional parties who
pretends to be closer to their emotions. There was gradual shift from the
pattern of one dominant party rule in the country to the multi-party coalition
led rule. The growing regional tensions gradually gave rise to emergence of
regional parties as a stronger political entity. The net effect was, the vote
share of national parties had consistently declined and the vote share of
regional parties had gone up. This is the reality and it is not going to change
in the forthcoming 16th Loksabha election also. Most of the major
national parties, therefore, have become a part of a coalition group. Although,
they are playing the lead role in their respective coalition groups,
nevertheless they need to listen to and comprise with the views of the smaller
parties in the group in order to stop the coalition from falling apart. There
are plenty of example to this and the latest being, when, last year, Trinamool
Congress of West Bengal, a junior coalition partner in the national government,
withdrew its support from the national
government over economic reforms. The entire nation was anxious for a few days
as there was a possibility of congress led UPA coalition becoming a minority in
the
Loksabha. The danger was, somehow, escaped because of the timely
support of some Uttar Pradesh based regional
parties from outside.
Narendra Modi- NDA
Leader Rahul Gandhi – UPA Leader
In
democracies, a change of government is a natural process. In India, however, it
is not taken that casually, because of the complex socio-economic scenario. A
change in government and its policies, here, could impact the lives of millions
of commoners. The UPA coalition, which ran the government for last ten years,
has been charged with the allegations of corruption and mal-administration. The
Prime minister himself has been accused of being weak and ineffective. Taking
advantage of the situation, the BJP led NDA coalition has come up with the
promise of a strong, growth oriented leadership of their leader Narendra Modi.
But again, because of his past records, some people perceive his emergence as a
threat to the nation as they believe that his policies might lead to communal
disharmony. To some people, communalism is the major danger before the Indian
society, but there are people also who believe that the widespread corruption
is a bigger issue than communalism at the moment. In the midst of all this
chaos, sometime it appears that the issues related to poverty and miseries of
poorer section of the society have taken a back seat for the time being. A few
months back, the puzzled and neglected common people of the Capital city of Delhi
had brought Aam Admi Party (AAP) to the power as an alternative to Congress and
BJP with lot of hope. But their expectations were short-lived as AAP leadership
escaped their responsibility by resigning at the nearest opportunity.
There are,
however, people who still believe that the situation in India is not as grim as
it sounds. The recipient of Padma Bhusan award, Mr. Lloyd Rudolph, an extensive
writer on Indian politics and emeritus professor at Chicago University, has
recently expressed his impartial observation during an interview, which goes as
follows: “India is definitely ahead of Europe in how so many diverse cultural,
linguistic and even religious communities have all kept together in a federal
political system. Look at Europe – it has become more and more divided into
countries. Within several countries that are much smaller than India, deep and
violent divisions persist. Ireland is one example. Compared to that India is
much better off, though problems persist. …… The Indian system, despite all the
misgivings and problems, is still working”.
So, not everything is lost.
Whatever be the outcome of the 16th Loksabha election, be it a hung
parliament or be there any kind of post-election alliances and coalitions
between the parties, the great Indian civilization has to continue. After all, one
has to understand that it is not the party and the coalition, but it is the
quality of the governance that ultimately matters. The show must go on. People
of India are the best judge.
-Surabhita Bhattacharya
-M.Sc Media P.G 1
-M.Sc Media P.G 1
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