The Ideology Of The Ruling Party Politics Essay

The Ideology Of The Ruling Party Politics examineIndia with a population of roughly a billion and an electorate of any everyplace 700 angiotensin-converting enzyme thousand thousand is the worlds tumidst nation and, for each(prenominal) its faults and flaws, this re frequentan dust stands in marked line of descent to the democratic snapures of Pakistan and Bangladesh which were furtherewell of India until 1947.Unlike the American policy-making system and the British policy-making system which inbredly maintain existed in their current configuration for centuries, the Indian semipolitical system is a oft untold novel construct dating from Indias independency from Britain in 1947. The current constitution came into posture on 26 November 1950 and advocates the trinity of justice, liberty and equality for any citizens.In stark contrast with the current constitution of Japan which has remained un falsifyd, the constitution of India has been angiotensin-conve rting enzyme of the most amended discipline documents in the world with much than 80 changes. galore(postnominal) of these amendments declare resulted from a gigantic-running dispute involving the Parliament and the Supreme appeal everyplace the rights of parliamentary sovereignty as they clash with those of judicial review of laws and constitutional amendments.Indias lower category, the Lok Sabha, is modelled on the British reside of Commons, further its federal official system of regimen borrows from the experience of the United States, potada and Australia.THE EXECUTIVE BRANCHThe fasten on aim of assure in India is the chair. This is normally a ceremonial role, originally modelled on the British monarch to advise, encourage and warn the choose administration on constitutional effects. The President can re fun a Parliamentary calling card once for reconsideration and, in seasons of crisis such(prenominal) as a hung Parliament, the role is pivotal. The Presi dent can decl ar a nation of extremity which en competents the Lok Sabha to bleed its life-time beyond the normal five-year term.As members of an electoral college, around 4,500 members of the national parliament and state legislators argon eligible to vote in the election of the President. The Indian Presidency has recently attracted special attention because for the start-off time a woman now occupies the role Pratibha Patil who was conformityerly governor of the northern Indian state of Rajasthan. there is also the post of Vice-President who is elective by the members of an electoral college consisting of both houses of parliament. The Vice-President chairs the the upper house called the Rajya Sabh.The head of the organization is the run a basis parson of religion who is appointed by the President on the nominating speech of the majority caller in the lower house or Lok Sabha. currently the anthesis curate is Manmohan Singh of the ruling United Progressive hampe r.Key features of the Prime Minister (head of government)Commander in Chief of the military and acts as crowning(prenominal) military authority.Through the cabinet proposes the bulk of legislation to the House of the plentyActs as the head of the Majority party in the House of the nation and is installed.No term limit and can be removed done a vote of no confidence.Key Features of the President (head of state) key features elective to 5 year call.Ceremonially appoints the Prime MinisterAppoints the Cabinet MinistersCan dissolve the Lok Sabha after the Prime minister loses a vote of no confidence.Can decl are national state of emergency or presidential rule of a state.Ministers are then appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister and these ministers collectively comprise the Council of Ministers.THE legislative BRANCHThe lower house in the Indian political system is the Lok Sabha or House of the People. As stick out in the Constitution, the uttermost size of the Lok Sabha is 552 members, made up of up to 530 members representing people from the states of India, up to 20 members representing people from the Union Territories, and two members to represent the Anglo-Indian community if it does non have adequate imitation in the house according to the President. before long the size of the house is 545 made up of 530 elected from the states, 13 elected from the territories, and two nominal from the Anglo-Indian community. By far the largest state representation is that of Uttar Pradesh with 80 members. At the a nonher(prenominal) end of the scale, three states have except one representative each. there are certain constituencies where scarcely candidates from schedule casts and scheduled tribes are allowed to stand.Each member except the two nominated ones represents a geographical undivided-member constituency as in the British model for the House of Commons.Each Lok Sabha is formed for a five year term, after which it is mechanically dissolved, unless extended by a Proclamation of Emergency which whitethorn extend the term in one year increments. This has happened on three cause 1962-1968, 1971 and 1975-1977.Elections are a huge and daedal affair which nationwide are held in five seperate rounds taking a total of 28 days. affiliate Lok SabhaThe upper house in the Indian political system is the Rajya Sabha or Council of States. As set out in the Constitution, the Rajya Sabhahas has up to 250 members. 12 of these members are chosen by the President for their ener totalic-wittedise in specific palm of art, literature, science, and social services. These members are existn as nominated members. The remainder of the house currently comprising 238 members is elected indirectly by the state and territorial law-makerss in proportion to the units population. Again, of course, the largest state representation is that of Uttar Pradesh with 31 members. The method of election in the local legislature s is the single transferable vote.Terms of office are for cardinal eld, with one third of the members facing re-election every two years. The Rajya Sabha looks in unremitting session and, dissimilar the Lok Sabha, it is non subject to dissolution.Link Rajya SabhaThe two houses piece legislative powers, except in the area of supply (money) where the Lok Sabha has overriding powers. In the case of conflicting legislation, a union sitting of the two houses is held. If at that place is a conflict which cannot be resolved operate down by the joint committee of the two houses, it is solved in the joint session of the Parliament, where the result of the Lok Sabha nigh always prevails, since the Lok Sabha is more than than twice as large as the Rajya Sabha.POLITICAL PARTIESIn India, political parties are either a subject Party of a State Party. To be considered a national Party, a political party has to be recognised in four or more states and to be either the ruling party o r in the op set up in those states.Ever since its formation in 1885, the Indian National intercourse (INC) and its victoryor has been the dominant political party in India. For its counterbalance six decades, its focussing was on campaigning for Indian independence from Britain. Since independence in 1947, it has sought to be the governing party of the nation with ingeminate success.As a result, for most of its democratic history, the Lok Sabha has been dominated by the Indian sexual congress Party which has been in power for a great shoot of the time. However, since the relation back Party mixed-up power in 1989, no single party has been able to secure an overal majority in the Lok Sabha, making alinements inevitable. Also, unlike Japan where the Liberal Democrat Party has been in power to the highest degree continuously, carnal knowledge has had (usually short) effects out of power, between 1977-1980, 1989-1991 and 1996-2004.The original Congress Party espoused damp en socialism and a planned, mixed economy. However, its spin-off and successor, Congress (I) I in honour of Indira Gandhi now supports deregulation, privatisation and foreign investment.While the Congress Party has historically dominated Indian politics, the leadinghip of the Congress Party in turn has been dominated by one family Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias first Prime Minister, served for 17 years his daughter Indira Gandhi later became Prime Minister his grandson Rajiv Gandhi was also Prime Minister currently the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi holds the position as Congress President although she has refused to hold the post of Prime Minister and her son Rahul Gandhi is a Member of Parliament, period her daughter Priyanka Gandhi is an active political campaigner.The Indian Congress Party is the starring(p) party in the Centre-Left political coalition called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which embraces a total of 16 parties.The other major, but mor e recently-established, political party in India is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Created in 1980, it represents itself as a genius of the socio- phantasmal cultural values of the boorishs Hindu majority and advocates conservative social policies and starchy national defence. The BJP, in alliance with several other parties, led the government between 1998-2004.The Bharatiya Janata Party is the leading party in the safe-wing political coalition called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). When it was originally founded in 1998, in that location were 13 parties in the coalition but currently there are eight.A Third Front is a grouping centred on the Communists.THE juridical BRANCHThe Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in civil, evil and constitutional cases. The court consists of up to 26 judges, including the Chief Justice of India, all of whom are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. They serve until the age of 65.THE ST ATESIndia is a huge country both demographically and geographically and consequently it operates a federal system of government. Below the national level, there are 28 States and seven-spot Union Territories.The largest of Indias states is Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the north of the country. With over 175 million inhabitants, UP is the most populous state in India and is also the most populous country subdivision in the world. On its own, if it was an independent nation, this state would be the worlds sixth biggest country. Only China, India itself, the United States, Indonesia and brazil have a higher population.In Indian general elections, it fills more than one-seventh of the seats in Indias Parliament and, such is the states rank-based and most(prenominal)times carmine politics that, currently a quarter of UPs MPs face condemnable charges.Over the years, India has evolved from a highly centralised state dominated by one political party to an increasingly fragmented nation, mor e and more influenced by regional parties and more and more governed locally by crank multi-party alliances. In the General Election of 2009, Congress and the BJP faced each other in only seven of the 28 States elsewhere, one of the two national parties faced a regional party.CONCLUSIONPolitics in India is much rougher and much more corrupt that in the democracies of Europe and North America. policy-making assassination is not un ballpark the revered Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, and the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 were all killed by assassins. Communal, caste and regional tensions continue to haunt Indian politics, sometimes threatening its long-standing democratic and secular ethos.Recent years have seen the emergence of so-called RTI activists tens of thousands of citizens, frequently poor, sometimes almost illiterate, frequently highly motivated who use the Right To Information legislation of 2005 to promote transparency and attac k corruption in public institutions. In the first five years of the legislation, over a million RTI requests were filed and so threatening to authority have some of the RTI activists set some that a upshot of have been murdered.(B) The political orientation of the ruling partypolitical parties in India love to talk about political theory. Each political party is supposed to have an ideology. So even if a political party does not have any ideology, it ordain never say so. If you were to contract probing questions about a partys ideology to a staunch stalwart of the party, you would either be bombarded with a short, nebulous and high-sounding label or be told that the ideology is too complex for anyone to understand so rapidly and one would need to spend a few years in the party to really understand the ideology of the party.The mystification of ideology goes stand in Indian history to Gandhi. From around 1920 to 1947, Gandhi rule over Indian political scene through the id eologic direction that he provided to Congress. Gandhian ideology was supposed to be very simple, based as it was on just two simple principles of truth and non-violence. Yet, it was not so simple. Nobody, during Gandhis time (and even after his death), could claim to have silent Gandhian ideology completely. Followers of Gandhi would claim their degree of understanding of the ideology based on the years they had fatigued with Gandhi. Ideology of Gandhi consisted of all that he spoke over the years. If there was an internal inconsistency or contradiction in his utterances or actions, it was not for a Gandhian to question it. All that an ordinary pestilent could do was to just look with reverence at all that Gandhi did. If Gandhi deviated from what he had said in the past times, it was hailed as development of Gandhian thought and was acclaimed as an experiment with truth. On the other hand, if anyone else moved a step beyond literal words of Gandhi, it was condemned.Gandhi was su rely a great leader. But his ideology did not brave out past him. Even his brightest follower, whom he liked most, did not follow his ideology. Nehrus dreams of modern India had nothing Gandhian about them. As long as Gandhi lived, for Congressmen, sole source of ideology was Gandhi. After Gandhis death this position channeled on to Nehru. After Nehru, there was a brief interlude when Lal Bahadur Shastri in his position as the sole fountainhead of Congress ideology announced Jai Jawan, Jai Kissan. Soon after the interlude, Indira Gandhi stepped in. Her vision of socialism was a departure from Gandhi, Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. such(prenominal) departures did not bother Congressmen who, by that time, knew only one ideology chief is always right.Less than a decade after Indira Gandhis death, a Congress Prime Minister initiated reforms and demolished licence-permit-quota-raj reinforced assiduously by Indira Gandhi and Nehru. The similar Congressmen, who had been declaring thei r unflinching loyalty to Nehru-Indira ideology, now were the champions of economic reforms, liberalization and globalization. Temples of modern India, built as part of Nehrus vision, were to be sold as part of disinvestment and Congress was applauding. The irony is that the author of economic reforms has now get the prime minister of India with support of socialist and communistic parties. He continues to talk of reforms in the similar breath as reservations for backward classes in private sector.ideologic contradictions have never bothered Congress. The party has evolved through contradictions and probably that is its greatest strength. disregardless of all that Congress leaders may roar from public platforms, the essential ideology of Congress is pragmatism. Cynics might say that pragmatism is a fantastic word for collective unbridle pursuit of self-interest. But that is just some other way of looking at Congress, which claims to be a party that knows how to rule. It is a party that knows how to mould itself to suit the circumstances. If it sees wide support for Hindutwa, it get out throttle to the Hindu bandwagon. One cannot forget that Rajiv Gandhi took the lead in production of TV serials like Ramayan and Mahabharat and Sardar Patel took the initiative for reconstruction of Somnath temple. On the other hand if Moslem fundamentalism is the flavour of the month, Congress can even get parliament to pass a law that overrules a Supreme Court judgement.Being on the right side of the ideological divide, in line with changing times, is a natural gift of the Congress. The party can be distinguishable things to different persons and no one can afford to make a flat statement about the ideology of Congress. As they say, it is so profound and complex that you will need to devote a lifetime to understand it and may be even then you would still not have understood it. Of course, if you are fortunate enough to become President of All India Congress Committee and Prime Minister of India, every statement you make will be accorded the status of Biblical truth.There are a large number of Indian parties, which are just clones of Congress. close to of them are regional parties. They have failed to become national parties because (a) they are unable to match the stag goodwill that Congress enjoys and (b) they do not have the resources that Congress commands. Many of them are successful in their region because their leaders are able to maintain a closer (compared to Congress and other national parties) adjoin with local aspirations and are able to better satisfy the collective unbridled pursuit of self-interest of the breed that is known in right aways India as political fiddleers.The importance of this breed cannot be overemphasized. Socialist thinkers (Ram Manohar Lohia and others) drew from this breed and created a sub-breed called socialists. This sub-segment is characterized by extreme individualism. For socialists, the pursuit of s elf-interest is hardly collective. Socialists get unneurotic and separate at such a quick pace that one loses track of who is in which party. Their individualism gets a collective tinge in the form of catering to family ties and caste interests. India is probably the only country where all socialist parties are casteist. There are also caste-based parties whose only ideological commitment is catering to the interests of one or more set of castes. much(prenominal) caste-based parties also often paint themselves with socialist colours.Caste as a reality of Indian politics has not spared even the communists. Yet, it must be admitted that communists remain the only group in Indian political jungle with a fairly well defined ideology. Of course, having an ideology is different from future(a) it. Communism, as propounded by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin or Mao Tse Tung, is a dictatorship of the proletariat. Its foundation in a free democracy with mixed economy is an anachronism. For t he past five decades, Indian communist parties have been trying to come to terms with existence in a democratic society. Till the collapse of Soviet Union, at least one of the Communist parties received indirect fiscal and moral support from Soviet Union. The fall of Soviet Union was a big blow for Indian communists in more ways than one. To survive, almost all communist parties have turned lobbyists for organized labour. Most public sector units and a few large private sector industries have communist clientele unions. These trade unions provide the funds for running of communist parties in India. Dictatorship of the proletariat has, hence, turned into pressure tactics and lobbying for more and more benefits for the pampered unproductive workers of unprofitable public sector industries. If providing these benefits makes it necessary to subvert higher taxes on the proletariat, the communists do not mind it. According to Marx, industrialisation was a necessary perquisite for commun ism. Indian communists have, however, led to a practical(prenominal) stoppage of industrialization in the two states of Kerala and West Bengal where they have ruled for a long time.The communist political worker is not much different from the general breed of self-interest driven political workers. A few years back, an erstwhile close friend moved from existence a full time worker of a communist trade union to Bharatiya Janata Party via Hindujas (a well-known business family). He was welcomed with open blazon by the top brass of BJP. Today, he is part of the topmost echelons of BJP. Most people are surprised by, what they see as, his ideological roll over. The fact is that in the ideology-less world of Indian politics, there is a good demand for expert players who can play this game with aplomb without any pangs of conscience.Till a few years back, BJP did not recruit from the floating pool of such expert players. RSS used to provide BJP with all the manpower that it needed. Eve n today bulk of BJPs manpower needs are met by supplies from RSS. For past seven decades or so, the musical arrangemental structure of RSS with its roots spread across the length and breadth of the country has been inspiring a new and different set of volunteers to step into public life. This set did not come into public life for the gains of power or for amassing wealth. Before BJPs rise to power in some states, they used to endure great hardships. The zeal and commitment of RSS workers was praised by even their adversaries and critics. RSS workers were fired by an ideology, often called as Hindu nationalism, that could best be described as a mix of nationalism and warm religious sentiments.RSS did not invent Hindu nationalism. The ideology is more than a hundred old. Towards the end of nineteenth century, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Swami Vivekanand, work independently, built a religious-political movement that in due course became the foundation of Indias freedom struggle. B oth of them were bitterly debate by the orthodox elements of Hinduism at that time. They espoused a version of Hinduism, which was progressive and reformist. This was unsufferable to Shankaracharyas and other authorities of Hindu community. In a way, Dayanand-Vivekanand combine equal one ideology and Shankaracharyas represented quite an opposite ideology. In the sign years, RSS represented the former, but it never spelled its ideology in explicit terms. To an extent, RSS entangle that ideological confusion would help it attract all sections of Hindu society, so all ideological debates were forbidden. Its aim to become an omnibus diluted its ideological focus. RSS chose to replace ideology with emotion. Senior leaders of RSS preached that organizations are built on the basis of bonds of liveliness and not on the basis of intellectual debate.Bonds of heart are useful for building a large voluntary organization, but they are of no use when one has to govern or take key decisions in fields of economic or strategic policy. This explains the floundering of BJP as a party of governance. RSS was built to be a fighting machine. The direct software of this machine does not have the capability to deliberate on profound complicated issues. Action rather than thought is the key focus of RSS as well as BJP. It is hence not surprising that RSS, as well as BJP, lacks clarity on all ideological issues.As an example, let us take the case of Common Civil Code. For more than five decades, RSS and all its offshoots have been demanding a commons civil code. In this long period it has never occurred to them to prepare a draft of the proposed common civil code. I have requireed senior leaders of Sangh clan about what they want in the common civil code. Their stock reply is that as and when they are in a position to pass such legislation, they will appoint a group to prepare such a draft. In other words they acknowledge that they do not even know what should be the broad cont ours of the code for which they have been shouting for half a century.Lack of depth marks every single ideological plank over that RSS and BJP claim as their essential identity. Of course, I have not spent a lifetime working with the Sangh clan and Sangh loyalists would be quick to shout that I lack the essential qualification to comment on their ideology. start out we heard that before? Yes, Congressmen say the same. In a way, BJP has just become a clone of Congress. What Gandhi is to Congress, Guru Golwalkar and Dr. Hedgewar are to BJP. BJP officially claims to follow the ideology of EKATM MANAVWAD (translated by them as Integrated Humanism), propounded by Deendayal Upadhyay. I have yet to meet a BJP leader who can explain the ideology in some depth. You may, of course, try to work as an apprentice with some BJP leaders and acceptfully before the end of your life you would know what integrated humanism is all about.The ideological vacuum in BJP is filled by one world-wide ideo logy Boss is always right. So, just as Congressmen look up to Sonia Gandhi as the fountainhead of ideology, BJP cadres look up to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani. RSS, which claims to be the mother organization of BJP, has lost its moral high ground. RSS still supplies bulk of manpower for BJP. But, for a BJP leader, utterances of Atal-Advani are more important than the noises coming from RSS headquarters at Nagpur. Ideological somersaults committed by Atal-Advani have often confused laymen. Diehard BJP loyalists have, however, been quick to change tacks as and when the bosses jumped. These loyalists have risen in BJP hierarchy and live a life of luxury with all the trappings of power.As BJP leaders have got used to a life of luxury, a major change has come about. Word has gone around that the right channel to get into BJP goes via RSS. As a result, the profile of volunteers entering RSS has undergone a sea change. emotionally charged, ideologically inspired zeal and commitment are now history. Career-oriented would-be(prenominal) politicians with dreams of power and luxury are entering RSS en route to BJP. They ask no questions and are too willing to jump with every somersault of the leadership.The conversion of BJP into a Congress-clone or a club for collective unbridled pursuit of self-interest signals a national crisis. A decade back, BJP (and Sangh clan) was seen to be the great hope for India. Today, BJP is just another party of petty politicians. India has lost all hopes from her political class, which is intellectually, morally and ideologically bankrupt.A country without hope is in a danger zone. India cannot remain in this zone for long. A new ideology and a new political party, which will be the torchbearer of the new ideology, is the need of the second. As the new ideology and party take shape, we can either curse our luck for living in this hour of crisis of ideology or we can work for heralding the new sunrise.(C) The strength of opposerTh e enemy in a democracy plays as important a role as the government. For a untroubled and sensible government to work in a proper way, according to the will of the people, and equally strong and sensible opposition is a must. Such an opposition is the secret of the success of democracy in England, the oldest democracy of the word. There is mainly one strong political party is opposition. In this lies the strength of democracy in that country.On the other hand, in Indian there are a number of opposition parties constantly quarreling among themselves. This is the greatest weakness of Indian democracy. In India there is no strong, united and healthy opposition. There are various reasons for it. No industrial revolution has taken place in this country. The result is that the working class is not politically conscious and, therefore, it is disunited and weak.The opposition parties do not have any clear cut programmes and policies. Their approach is often communal, sectarian or regional. Their leaders are confused and have no idea of their aims and objectives. They quarrel for power and there are frequent splits. There are often defections on a large scale. People do not have faith in such parties, and so they fail to secure a majority in the elections. In the legislature itself, their leaders indulge in destructive criticism to gain their political ends. They move on party interest above national interest.The role of opposition in a democracy is very important. The opposition accelerates the harvest-festival of the county or retards its maturement by untimely agitations. For example, the violent agitations in Gujarat, Bihar, Assam and Punjab resulted in great spillage of life and propensity and failed entirely to gain their objectives. The Governments policy of State work in Food grains was wrongly criticized for political reasons. The result was that procurement targets could not be reached and wheat had to be imported to build up flourishing buffer stock. This was essential to hold the price-line. Such a destructive approach is against the national interest.The role of opposition in a democracy should be healthy. It should criticize the Government policies in the national interest and not for part gains. The opposition parties must come together and merge on the underlying of similarity in their ideologies. Universal illiteracy and universal poverty, unhealthy linguist, regionalism, racialism and casteism characterize Indian life. They are all obstacles in the way of the growth of a cohesive social and political life in the country.There is a mushroom growth of political parties due to the selfishness and lack of far sightedness of their leaders. Parties can come together on the basis of common ideology. But in India the party alliances are opportunistic, the only common ground between them being their hostility to the Government. Obviously, such alliances are bound to be short lived. For example, the Janta Party was a coalition of a number of political parties. So it, could not rule the nation for any length of time. It was throw out of power due to the inter-quarreling of the opposition parties.In a democracy the aims of the Government and the opposition should be the same- the good of the people. The opposition should criticize the government to implement its manifesto. It should criticize the government only to make it more cost-efficient and honest. Criticism should be based on sound principles. Opposition parties should victuals in mind that they may be called upon by the people to form the Government by any time. They should, therefore, function in a liable way.Prior to 1967, the opposition was divided into an array of small parties. While the Congress garnered between 45 percent and 48 percent of the vote, no opposition party gained as much as 11 percent, and during the entire period, only two parties win 10 percent. Furthermore, in each election, independent candidates won between 12 percent and 20 percent of the vote.The oppositions first probatory attempt to achieve electoral unity occurred during the 1967 elections when opposition party alliances won control of their state governments in Bihar, Kerala, Orissa, Punjab, and West Bengal. In Rajasthan an opposition coalition prevented the Congress from winning a majority in the state legislature and forced it to recruit independents to form a government. The Congress electoral carnage encouraged even more dissidence within the party, and in a matter of weeks after the elections, defections brought down Congress governments in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. By July 1967, state governments of two-thirds of the country were under opposition rule. However, opposition rule in many cases was short-lived. The import of the 1967 elections initiated a climate of politics by defection in which the Congress, and to a lesser extent the opposition, attempted to overthrow governments by winning over their state legislators with promises of greater political power and outright bribes. Needless to say, this period seriously undermined the ability of most parties to discipline their members. The increase in opposition-ruled state governments after 1967 also prompted the Congress to use Presidents Rule to dismiss opposition-led state governments with increasing frequency (see Emergency Provisions and Authoritarian Powers, this ch.).Although the centrist and right-wing opposition formed a grand alliance during the 1971 parliamentary elections, it was not until the general elections of 197