PARTY SYSTEM IN INDIA As in other representative democracies

Political Parties and Party System

PARTY SYSTEM IN INDIA As in other representative democracies

in India also political parties are an established part of political process.

However, unlike in the Wester n democracies where parties came into existence as a result of introduction of representative election system, India’s party system originated in the late nineteenth century as a response to the British colonial rule and challenge.

During this period the party system on

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5 6 DEMOCRACY IN INDIA : ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

the one hand represented an assertion of national solidarity for national liberation and on the other a vision for new India.

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The beginning of the Indian Party System can be traced to the formation of the Indian National Congress as a political platform in 1885. To begin with Congress was a platform to express the grievances of emerging middle class.

Soon, it became a nation wide movement first to demand political reforms in the colonial administration and then a movement for national freedom. In that process Congress became an all embracing party accommodating various social, communal and economic interests with primacy for national freedom. Moreover as a consequence of British policy of divide and rule and partly concerned with apprehensions about the status of communities and regions, there also came up communal and caste based parties like Hindu Mahasabha, Muslim League, Akali Dal, Dravid Kanjahagam, etc. In addition there also were formed parties with an ideological vision for future India. Most important of these was the Communist Party. Thus, on the eve of independence and before the adoption of parliamentary democracy in India there already were political parties of different shades comprising of well defined and distinct socio-cultural regions, variety of religions, cultural and linguistic groups and

economic disparities. It was in this background that framers of the Constitution adopted a parliamentary system of democracy and federalism in India and hoped that a proper party system would develop to run that political system.

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The framers of the Constitution adopted for India a Parliamentary System of government. Political parties, obviously, were to be an essential instrument for working of this system.

However, in the Constitution of India no mention of parties or their functions was made. Various provisions of the Constitution, of course, provided opportunities for parties to be established, develop and function as in any representative democracy. Only legal provision that came up to regulate political parties in a limited way was Election Commission’s powers to register political parties for the purpose of allotment and reservation of symbols.

Later a mention of parties came in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution in the context of defections. Thus, party system in India is undefined and unregulated except for extremely limited purposes of registration by the Election Commission and under the provisions of anti-defection law.

Nevertheless, right from the time of independence along with the already existing political parties there have been emerging a number of parties of different sizes with different ideologies

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and programmes, each with its own organisational structure. In view of the peculiar historical background, complex socio-economic environment and tasks of development the party system that has emerged in India and is developing does not neatly fit into generally prescribed one party, two party and multi party system. Yet certain characteristics of these systems can be identified in different periods. Various phases can be described as: (i) One Party Dominance Phase; (ii) Trends Toward Two Party System; (iii) Hegemonic Domination;

and (iv) Multi Party System and Coalition Era.

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HASE As mentioned above right after independence from the time of first general election there were a large number of political parties. However, up to 1977 Indian National Congress was the dominant party. It was the ruling party both at the Centre and almost in all the States. In Parliamentary elections though the Congress hardly won 50 per cent votes but the gap between Congress votes and that of any other single party was quite enormous. For example, in the first general elections while Congress polled 45 per cent votes, the next largest party Praja Socialist Party secured 10.60 per cent votes. Up to 1971 elections no single party other than the Congress crossed this limit of around 10 per cent votes. The Congress was also the only party that received votes from all States

and regions and from various categories of population. The reasons for Congress domination included its existence since 1885, role played by it as a vanguard of the national movement for freedom, its leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and others, and its wide organisational network spread all over India.

Gradually with the elimination of these factors and with spread of other parties, particularly at State level, the Congress domination began to decline.

This decline became quite evident in 1967 General Election, when both the number of seats it won and votes it polled declined. The Congress also lost power in eight states. But in 1971 elections the party again emerged as the dominant party. It was in 1977 that after independence, for the first time Congress lost power in the Centre as also in many States. It was thus the end of first phase of party system that is the one party dominance.

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1977 elections provided a major step towards party institutionalisation and possibilities of emergence of a two party system. In these elections there was a substantial reduction in the number of candidates despite the increase in number of seats (there were 2,439 candidates for 542 seats compared to 2,784 for 518 seats in 1971). There was significant increase in the number of straight contests. The number of clear straight contests was 101. But if one

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5 8 DEMOCRACY IN INDIA : ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

does not count for 1 or 2 independents seeking elections in a constituency, besides the candidates of the rival parties, the number of virtual straight contests were 279. Within this another noteworthy trend was the clear rejection of independent candidates. Though the number of independent candidates was highest in 1977, the number of those who won was the lowest (7 out of 1,222).

Finally, 75.8 per cent of the votes were cast in favour of only two parties namely the Janata and the Congress.

As a result of this and victory of a non-Congress party at the Centre for the first time many scholars and observers opined that parliamentary democracy in India had matured and a two party system was in the process.

The hope, however, was short lived. The Janata Party which had come into existence with the merger of four parties rather than emerging a cohesive singly party, in its behaviour remained a conglomeration of parties. Result was internal bickering and factionalism that not only became a major hindrance in its performance but also tarnished its image in public eyes. It ultimately led to an atmosphere that proved conducive to its disintegration and disillusionment of the voters. The party could not remain together even for three years.

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OMINANCE On the basis of 1980 elections, the Indian party system was again back to one party dominant system. However, it was now different not only from the

early party system of Nehru era but also from that of the latter part of the pre-emergency. First thing was that the dominant party now was identified with the name of the leader (Indira) who had become undisputed leader of the party.

The attitude of the ruling Congress to the opposition parties also underwent a marked change. So long as the Congress was a dominant party and the only national force in the country, the opposition was treated with respect and it was able to emerge as a force to reckon with at the state and local levels. But after the successful Janata challenge in 1977 and the split in the Congress, the top leadership of the Congress had started feeling increasingly insecure and the party became intolerant and exclusivist, unwilling to share power with other parties.

At the same time opposition parties also, after tasting power, having lost the capacity to oppose Congress on moral grounds because of their behaviour as a ruling party got engaged in politics of confrontation. Some of them had also brought factors like caste in the forefront and won significant support on that basis in some states.

Thus, in 1980s the Congress(I) dominance in reality was not the dominance of one party all over India and based on a type of politics of consensus. It was a hegemonic dominance because of failure of national level non-Congress parties on the one hand and limited regional support bases of regional parties on the other. In this hegemonic phase —

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unlike the one party dominance phase, in which the organisational structure of the party which sought to represent different interests and identities within the society was important, the party had become dependent on the personality of the leader.

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The Parliamentary elections held in December 1989 clearly initiated a multi party system at the centre. The states component of the system, in aggregate terms had already become a multi partisan one by 1967 when nearly half of the states had come to be ruled by non-Congress parties. 1989 elections, according to observers, transformed the scene at the centre in two unprecedented ways. First, it brought into power a coalition government at the centre for the first time, at least in a formal sense (for even the Janata Party government in the late 1970s was substantially a coalition government).

Second, again for the first time the party system at the centre truly acquired a multi party character for more than two parties became of consequential relevance, in the ninth Lok Sabha. The outcome of the 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999 polls have further strengthened this situation and showed a clear trend of decline of Congress hegemony and emergence of multi party system and a coalitionist phase.

But it does not mean that this multi party character is there sure to stay or

a polarisation process is on.

Polarisation means consolidation of the appeal by political parties with sharply defined ideologies. The new system, at least for the time being, has thrown up a dynamism in which major parties or party like formations — the Congress and its allies, the BJP and its allies — seem to be almost equally poised for competition. The Left and regional parties may play a balancing role. In this multipolarity it also seems that Indian politics has entered a coalition phase. Some observers see it as dangerous for the future of parliamentary democracy in India as it causes instability. But in fact it is nothing unusual. In a country so vast, with so much of diversity, both the multi party system and coalition governments are natural. Even in developed Western democracies with much less diversity like France, Italy, Germany and others there had been coalitions. In a way coalition governments tend to be more accountable due to continuous threat to their existence. Therefore, it is not the party system or single party or coalition governments responsible for success or failure of democracy. It depends on various other factors which we will discuss in subsequent chapters.

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From the above it emerges that because of its peculiar social structure, level of political development and institutional framework India has developed her own

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6 0 DEMOCRACY IN INDIA : ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

type of multi party system. Various parties, however, are not of equal size or equal spread. On the basis of strength and areas of functioning the Election Commission of India registers parties as national parties and state parties and unrecognised parties.

According to the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) order, 1968, a political party shall be treated as a recognised political party in a State if, and only if either of the conditions specified in clause (A) or the conditions specified in clause (B) are fulfilled. These are: (A) that such party (i) has been engaged in political activity for a continuous period of five years; and (ii) has at the general election to the House of people in that State or to the Legislative Assembly returned either one member to the House of the People for every twenty-five members of that House or any fraction of that number elected from that State or at least one member to the Legislative Assembly of that State for every thirty members of the Assembly or any fraction of that number; (B) That the total number of votes polled by all the contesting candidates setup by such party at the general election in the State to the House of the People or to the Legislative Assembly is not less than four per cent of the total number of valid votes polled by all the contesting candidates at such general election in the State.

A Party fulfilling the conditions either of (A) or (B) is recognised as a state party. A political party recognised as state party at least in four states is recognised as a national party. Parties

which are not recognised as state parties because of lack of strength but are otherwise registered with the Commission are called unrecognised registered parties. An exclusive symbol is reserved for a national party throughout India. In the case of a state party a symbol is reserved for it in the State or States in which it is so recognised. It is obvious that there is no permanent list of recognised parties.

It is revised after every general election by the Election Commission in the light of the criterion laid down. Let us now have a look at one of the important roles of political parties in a democratic system i.e. the role of opposition.

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ARTIES In the beginning of this chapter you have read that the primary goal of a political party is to seek power, but in addition to that as a part of the task of seeking power in democracies, political parties also perform other functions. In this process a party which does not acquire power during election, apart from performing the functions of governance, continues to perform all other functions as a political party including the role of opposition. As opposition the party or parties, are expected to present themselves as an alternative government both by challenging the governments policies and measures between elections and by offering themselves as potential governing parties at the election. For this purpose the opposition keeps the government in check, provides to the

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people alternative policies and pro-grammes, and keep them aware of the shortcomings in the performance of the government: its failures, the deviations from promises, misuse of power. In other words the opposition in addition to provide alternatives, caters to the need of providing checks and balances to the ruling party by criticising it on its excesses, lapses and acts of omission and commission. To perform such a role it is important that opposition party/

parties is/are strong, viable and responsible both in quantity and quality. By quantity is meant that the opposition should have enough support that a small change in voters preference can bring it to power. By quality is meant that people should have faith in the capacity and credibility of the opposition.

In view of such an important role, in many parliamentary democracies, opposition party is given an official recognition. In Britain for instance, the opposition party has been officially recognised. There is as such Her/His majesty’s government and Her/His majesty’s opposition. The leader of the opposition is provided the same salary and privileges as that of a cabinet minister. His/her most special privilege and responsibility, however, is that related to the possibility of being called at any time to constitute an alternative government. Therefore, she/he has at all times to keep a shadow cabinet ready so that at short notice the shadow may be converted into a reality and can take over the task of the government.

This can be either if the government of

the day is defeated on the floor of the House or in general elections. That is why it is said that today’s opposition is tomorrow’s government and vice-versa.

This system of government and opposition best functions in a two party system where two parties are almost equal in strength and can replace each other with a little change in vote percentage. In multi party systems, in many cases, the opposition parties are more opposed to each other than to the party in power. It does not, however, mean that in a multi party system opposition has no role or is not relevant.

In a way the role of keeping check on ruling party in such a case becomes more important, because the ruling party who is not much worried of defeat because of a divided opposition may tend to become irresponsible or corrupt. Also it is not always that a multi party system is a one party dominant system. Therefore, both the government and the opposition can be alliances or group of parties thereby functioning as regular government and opposition. In any case, opposition is a very important factor in a democracy and needs to be strong. At the same time in different situations and types of party systems the nature and role of opposition can be different. Nevertheless, whatever the situation is, both the ruling party and the opposition are expected to play their respective roles with responsibility, honesty and with dignity.

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In the early years of the Republic, in spite of their weak and fragmented

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6 2 DEMOCRACY IN INDIA : ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

position in the Parliament, the opposition parties played a very important role. The leaders of these parties actively participated in debates, raised important national issues and took the government to task for its failures. Those leaders were respected and known for their integrity and commitment to the task of nation and constitution building. Nehru not only tolerated but encouraged them. He believed that there are two or more sides to every question and called upon the opposition spokesman to present the other side of the picture whenever an important issue arose. The question hour in particular was used very effectively to keep the government on its toes.

As has been mentioned in the beginning, neither the Constitution nor any law in India, spoke about political parties. Thus, political system in India gave opportunities to political parties, to grow and participate in the system without much conditions. In the early years, there was a situation of one party dominant. Though there was no legal provision for a recognised opposition party, there was a provision for

In document Ncert XII Political Science Democracy India Old Syllabus (Page 55-64)