Regional Politics and Fractured Mandate: The destiny of Indian Democracy

The power of Democracy does not only involve its citizen’s participation to form a government but also it empowers its citizens to bring about change by forming its own political party. Thus regional politics has a dramatic involvement in the formation of the Government. The dynamics of regional politics is ever changing. It is after the post independence that regional political parties have come up with their agendas and theories to bring about development and change.

But ironically, these regional political parties have also become a threat towards democracy. The regionalization of India's political landscape has decentralized power and has deepened the country's democracy, says London School of Economics (LSE) professor, Sumantra Bose.

"For all the flaws and vices of many of contemporary India's regional political figures, the regionalization of India's politics is a democratic outcome that has emerged through the dynamic evolution of India's democracy over six decades," Bose told PTI in an interview.

Regional parties are parties whose main holds are in one certain state and mostly they participate in the elections only within that state. Most of these regional parties have agenda fitting certain culture dominant within that state. Some of these regional parties also participate in neighboring states, which have constituencies with culture similar to the first state. Different state parties were established at different periods because of different reasons. Some even have origins prior to India's independence.

In Tamil Nadu in south India, two main state parties are All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (AIADMK) and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK). Of these two parties the DMK is the veteran party. The origins of these parties are prior to India's independence. The main ideology of this party is Tamil national pride. Before India's independence there were two Dravidian parties. One was Independent Party, which demand an independent Dravidstan in south India. Other was Justice Party, which had a Dravidian pride ideology. After India's independence, the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) was established from the merger of these two parties in the former state of Madras, in south India. This party first demanded an independent Dravidstan for all of south India. Later on the demand was changed to independent Tamil state. Finally this party compromised on a Tamil Nadu state within the Indian Union.

In the beginning this party was anti-north Indian. They opposed to any entrance of any kind of cultures of north India. They specially attacked the attempt to introduce Hindi language in Tamil Nadu (see also Official languages of India).  This party members also saw in the Tamil Brahmans agents of north India who immigrated to south India to enforce to north Indian Aryan culture on the south Indians (see Aryans and Dravidians). The party demanded to reserve the government jobs for Dravidians and not to 'immigrant' Brahmans. In 1972 this party split and a new party was founded by MC Ramachandaran and it was named All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (AIADMK). In 1987 Ramachandaran died and Jayalalita inherited him. In the last few years these Tamilian pride parties have moderated their ideologies and before the 1998 elections the AIADMK even cooperated with BJP, which is considered as a north Indian party.
In Andra Pradesh, also in south India, Telegu Desam was founded in 1982 by Telegu film actor, NT Rao. The ideology of the party is similar to the ideology of the AIADMK, which is local cultural pride. In the Telugu Desam case, the local cultural pride is of Telugu culture.

Another one state party is Akali Dal and its main hold is in Punjab, north India. This party is considered a state party, but actually it is a religion oriented party whose followers are the Sikhs. This party also has its origin prior to India's independence. In Assam in east India and in Maharashtra in west India there are political parties which came into existence because of the discriminatory feelings of the local 'sons of soil' population. In the 1980s the Asom Gana Parishad was founded with an agenda to give back Assam to the Assamese people. In Maharashtra, in west India, the local population is known as Maharashtrians. Their language is known as Marathi. Sometimes the Maharashtrians are also known as Marathi. There are other state parties in India. To name a few there are, National Conference in Kashmir, Haryana Vikas Party in Haryana, Manipur People's Party in Manipur, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak in Goa, Sikkim Democratic Front in Sikkim, Mizo National Front in Mizoram, and many other parties. People who broke away from larger national parties, like the Congress founded some state parties. For example the West Bengal Trinamul Congress, Tamil Manila Congress, Kerala Congress. There are also communist state parties.

Prescience of regional parties in national gov­ernment sometime creating instability. Sometimes legislature is dissolved and fresh elections are held before the five year terms. Regional parties are playing a major role in the Indian politics. Now, there influence is not only with respect to particular region but consid­ered in national politics also. 
                                                                                                      Ahana Pahari

                                                                                                M.Sc Media,PG-1

The Bharatiya Opinion Poll… 

“Public opinion polls are rather like children in garden, digging things up all the time to see how they are growing.”

Once upon a time the national elections used to be conducted within a period of week or so, we now see that even this year’s election has spread over a month. Even in a country like U.S. the entire voting process is completed in a day and the final results are declared the same evening. It is a reflection of immaturity of our democracy and the passions generated in the polling process

Opinion poll is a very controversial concept. With the request by the Congress party to the election commission to ban or restrict the opinion poll, the subject is now a matter of debate in the media and elsewhere. Naturally, t.v media , indeed newspaper also, opposed the move of congress party in general, probably more from their own TRP/Readership perspective.

The controversy from the technical point of view are-questions need to be answered relating to the number of samples, randomness of the subjects covered, existence or lack of bias. These are extremely relevant issues from the scientific cum mathematical point of view to establish “confidence” limit, that is reliability. The tendency in many samples is to cover metropolitan or urban areas, as this is more convenient; only a small portion of the samples come from rural areas and very few from really remote parts. Very rigorous identification of the subjects, based on mathematical randomness, is prescribed to enhance reliability- it is doubtful if many of the present polls meet these criteria.

         The other technical aspect relate to whether the interviews are true proxies to how a person will actually vote in the polling booth. In India large number of people doesn’t give accurate answers to such polls. Another technicality is that many media houses are owned and run by political parties and big business houses, so there is chance that they can manipulate the polling patterns.

          For example: If ABP news is a supporter of the congress party then it would be but obvious that they will follow the polls in favor of congress rather than going for any other party.

          “Media houses and many political parties have vehemently argued that any check or control on                     dissemination of poll results will tantamount to interfere with free speech which is a fundamental right.             This is certainly true; any circumscription of dissemination of opinion polls ought to be done only if                  absolutely essential and with great care.” – INDIAN EXPRESS

On the whole it is being viewed that there is a necessity to bring some regulation and control over opinion poll and it also should be considered if opinion polls are permitted after election notification is issued.

Amrita Ghoshal
M.Sc Media, P.G 1

Paradise Lost

The birth of AAP has its roots in a difference of opinion between Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare. Both of them had been a part of the the anti-corruption movement for Jan Lokpal Bill that had gained momentum in India during 2011 and 2012.

AAP’s chief aim was to fight against the political corruption in our country; they vehemently opposed and protested against the various scams that the prevailing congress government was involved in. According to them the right to equality and justice promised to us by the constitution had not been materialized. The idea that for the first time, a civil society movement has transformed itself into a political organization and challenged established political parties and its pledge to remove corruption and to establish a free and democratic country attracted the attention of the common people. Banking upon the support of the common people and acting as their mouthpieces AAP emerged as the second-largest party in Delhi winning 28 of the 70 Assembly seats in the general assembly elections.

People had huge expectations from Aam Aadmi Party but all it got was disappointment. As time moved on they started facing strong criticisms and this started with Kejriwal suggesting a 50% cut in electricity tariffs. Party manifesto claimed to end monopolies of discoms and to introduce genuine competition where consumers can choose their own distribution company. The 50% cut off , veiled threats to private discoms, potential cancellation of their licenses would scare away the private sector and was sure to take Delhi back to the bad old days of the state owned electricity board , when tariffs were  low but no power for several hours in a day. Second instance was AAP’s decision to curb the careless use of water by promising 700 litres of water free of charge per day to all so that the consumers use the precious resource rationally.

Proper organization lacked in the party, random speeches over sensitive issues were delivered without prior discussion and one such instance was the January 2014 protest against Prashant Bhushan, who had expressed a personal opinion against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Jammu & Kashmir. This caused the AAP to determine that its significant members would in future refrain from expressing opinions on anything that was not agreed by a broad consensus within the party. Then comes Vinod Kumar Binny and Tina Sharma who seemed to be disgruntled for not getting posts of power, and the ambitious new recruits in other parts of the country who were speaking out of line. The inability of the AAP top leadership in regulating its growth was visible. The party was at the risk of an implosion that would yet again show the world that mass movements are inherently prone to decline after their romantic rise.

The most disappointing aspect was that it failed to materialize The Jan Lokpal Bill, which was the main issue of their political campaign. In February 2014, the AAP tried to introduce a Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly, however, Jung said that tabling the bill without his agreement would be “unconstitutional".This view was supported by Congress and the BJP, and Jung advised the Assembly Speaker not to allow the tabling. When BJP and INC blocked the introduction of the bill, the AAP government resigned. Kejriwal alleged that there was a nexus among Congress, BJP and the industrialist Mukesh Ambani.

The party announced in December 2013 that it intended to contest seats in the Lok Sabha election, 2014, including all those in Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. AAP was thrown out of its dream ride because it’s on a cruise that it has no control over. The party was not ready for power in Delhi, but went for it unprepared and it wanted to expand across the country in a phased manner, but got carried away by the Delhi results and enthusiasm of urban Indians. Now, they have a double burden of meeting the sky-high expectations that they themselves had set in Delhi, and scaling up across India to fight in over 400 Lok Sabha seats. For an urban mass movement of common people, with an organisational history of less than a year, this is unreal and absurdly ambitious.The possibility of AAP coming up with a good result in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections looks very bleak to me. People have lost faith in them as they have failed to deliver. The internal differences between their own members, corrupt members like Kumar Vishwas and Shazia Ilmi, whimsical decisions and speeches delivered lack of unity and a proper organization has left a grave footprint in the minds of the common people which makes it very difficult for this party to regain the lost position and the common man’s belief in them.

                                                                                                       Anirban Das
                                                                                               M.Sc Media,PG-1

Is AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) Really An Eye-Opener!!!!??

Democracy is going through a difficult time. Even in established democracies, flaws in the system have become worryingly visible and disillusion with politics is rife. Yet just a few years ago democracy looked as though it would dominate the world.

The entire nation is agitated about corruption and government inaction on several critical issues. The common man is resigned to the situation as something too large to be handled, but the price rise and high cost of living were major burdens.

This is when an ordinary middle-class man emerged as the face of the anti-corruption movement, fighting for the common man’s cause: Arvind Kejriwal, an IITian. Some members of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement decided to peel away, form a group and change from being a forum of social activism into a political party. Naming itself Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), it contested the New Delhi  legislative elections in 2013 and emerged as a political force, going on to form a government with outside support this January. The AAP has changed the traditional face of Indian elections, with the fervour of anti-corruption touching a chord among the great Indian middle class.   

When founder of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Delhi, heading a minority government, a surge of excitement shot through the country since a new chapter had begun in Indian politics and governance. The fledgling party came second in the December 2013 elections, winning 28 of the 70 seats.

The AAP (meaning Party of the Common Man) is a phenomenon for several reasons. It was started by a first-time politician and is not the offshoot of an age-old party.

The AAP’s major premise is that the promise of equality and justice that is enshrined in our Constitution has not been upheld by successive governments. The common man, who was enslaved by an oppressive foreign power, remains enslaved by the political elite. Drawing on the Gandhian concept of swaraj, the AAP promises that the government will be directly accountable to its people. It will hold public meetings, as a way of getting to know people’s grievances. In short it will be a government for the people and not a government for the government.

The AAP touched a chord in every individual who was angry with the system and gave them hope that at last something could be done.

The AAP’s  success in Delhi has opened the floodgates in terms of  people’s desire to become a part of this movement. Prominent personalities are joining the party every day, including high profile professionals who are quitting their careers to do so. The AAP has announced its intent to contest the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held within a few months. It has launched a membership drive that will take the party strength to one crore.

Now the important challenge is to find an economic model that will deliver not only a clean government to its people but also a continuously improving standard of living – in other words, growth. It is a long-term challenge for the people’s party and people’s government to deliver economic growth.

Making democracy work requires informed and active citizens who understand how to voice their interests, act collectively and hold public officials accountable. Citizens must understand the basis of citizenship, politics and government, and they need knowledge to make good policy choices and understand the proper use of authority. Citizens also need the desire to exercise their rights and the political space to do so without unreasonable resistance or harassment from authorities or others. And there are many different ways that you can get involved with decision-making to help shape the kind of society you want to live in whether at school, college or in your community. 

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- Pictures and some informations are taken from google.

Anisha Das

M.Sc Media P.G 1

Aam Aadmi Party: A Turning Point for Indian Democracy??

India is proud to be the largest functioning democracy- the oldest being USA. Democracy is supposed to produce impact for the masses. Simply speaking; democracy means power for  the masses and not for of the classes.

Democracy is also a very costly phenomenon unlike autocracy. Unfortunately, over the years, democracy is crudely controlled by the classes-by dynasty culture- nepotism, where muscle power and money power rules -while a billion plus strong population remains helpless and hapless.

Yes! India has changed and changed for the better when we compare ourselves with other nations of the sub-continent and other underdeveloped nations of Africa and South America. The common man’s voice is lost. After 67 years of independence, we at times feel defeated. Democracy or the political system in place couldn’t change the life of the common people at large. Even the basic necessities of life; like sanitation, clean drinking water, education to all, public health service, and even the judiciary fails to deliver what democracy is supposed to achieve. Mass scale corruption, scam at the highest order & at the highest level , caste and communal divide became the only bi-product of this largest functioning democratic system.

            

Need of the hour is: Social Reform or Reformers than Politics or Politicians.

Arvind kejriwal is a social crusader, left government of India service  (Indian revenue Service) in 2005. He relentlessly fought to eradicate corruption in public life, for the Right to Information (RTI) to achieve transparency in the system and the Jan Lokpal to pin down the political class which somehow enjoys immunity from justice. His journey culminated into a political force called Aam Admi Party (AAP) – just to fight within the system rather than from outside the system. People could identify him as a new brand of politicians with phenomenal expectation. He is lauded for starting a political party to bring about social change than armchair politics or politics dominated by criminals or touts. He increasingly occupied the imagination of the people as a possible game changer, a symbol of hope for the aam admi who believes that he will deliver  nation free from corruption and self serving politicians. His landmark approach is of practicing a different kind of politics with transparency and honesty as the core elements which is in sharp contrast to the nepharous mechanisms of most political parties. The path is not that simple and easy and has many critical pitfalls. AAP believes in aggressive decentralization and redefining the electrical tariffs and water. Needless to say pulse rate (be it electricity or telephone) is among the lowest in India. This raises dangerous vision of an anarchic mutiny and idealism which does not match economic reality.

For a country infected with corruption and scams, AAP is proving to be a huge attraction to the people and also shaming the other political parties and systems.

This is only the beginning and the emergence of an alternative political system and defining an eye opener for India after independence. It has to pass the acid test where democracy delivers without corruption, without nepotism, without bias for a nation of 1.3 billion people. This is big challenge. When a sea change is required, it is only the start of a difficult journey which is badly damaged by vested political interests and people. Important point is: People at large could see a different brand of politics and conglomeration of some very successful people who left their career, and sacrificed their name and fame, economic stability to a life of crusader. This change India has never seen after independence and hence galvanized rapid support and sky-high expectations. A young nation with 65% of the population below the age group of 35, the AAP type politics is a real eye opener and caught the imagination of the nation. Time will prove its success.

Anjana Chakravorty

M.Sc Media, P.G 1

Opinion Poll- Losing Authenticity Day By Day

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll, is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals. Two of the most common ways in which public opinion polls are conducted are telephone and face-to-face interviews. Other methods include mail, online, and self-administered surveys.

                              A scientific, nonbiased public opinion poll is a type of survey or inquiry designed to measure the public's views regarding a particular topic or series of topics. Trained interviewers ask questions of people chosen at random from the population being measured. Responses are given, and interpretations are made based on the results. It is important in a random sample that everyone in the population being studied has an equal chance of participating. Otherwise, the results could be biased and, therefore, not representative of the population. Representative samples are chosen in order to make generalizations about a particular population being studied.

                             Earlier the opinion polls were authentic and the political parties used to depend on opinion polls. News came recently that the election committee are likely to ban opinion polls because it is not authentic and may lead to false idea.

                            The biggest issues with opinion polls are that the chances of such polls being fabricated are very high. Moreover there is no consistency about the methodology of these opinion polls which makes it very difficult to rely on their authenticity. Most experts say that these polls are also largely biased if not fabricated as they are urban and male-centric. In the Indian scenario the sample sizes of all these opinion polls are hardly anything and many of the surveys don not reveal how they collected their samples. Recently there has a lot of talk about how opinion polls are being doctored by the agencies. Most agencies manipulate the result of poll and sell it to different media houses. In such circumstances where the question mark on the authenticity of the polls remains, it’s better to ignore and avoid them.

                          Although opinion polling has become an essential tool in public policy decision-making and election campaigns but unless the issue of authenticity is addressed their relevance in a big democracy like India will remain marginal. Many political scientists believe that opinion polls undermine the democratic process by influencing the voters through the results of the opinion polls. Very often when such polls get published they carry a disclaimer with them that advises its readers that opinion poll conducted reflects the opinions of few who have chosen to participate and cannot be generalized always. The importance of opinion polling in Indian politics is not such that they cannot be done away with.  The polling industry, its assumptions, and its methods do not remain relevant as these days all the agencies conducting opinion polls are resorting to unethical practices. Polls tell us what proportion of a population has a specific viewpoint.  They do not explain why respondents believe as they do or how to change their minds. This is the work of social scientists and scholars. Polls are simply a measurement tool that tells us how a population thinks and feels about any given topic.  This can be useful in helping different cultures understand one another because it gives the people a chance to speak for themselves instead of letting only vocal media stars speak on behalf of all. Opinion polling gives people who do not usually have access to the media an opportunity to be heard.

-Anuradha Roy

M.Sc Media, P.G 1