Emerging Trends in Indian Politics

Dated : 23-03-20
10. Populistic Politics: Indian politics always had a trend of attracting people with the help of
raising populist slogans. Congress allured people with the slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’ in 1975
followed by the slogan of ‘Democracy Vs Dictatorship’ raised by the Janata Party in 1977.
Same trends are followed in the states. The ‘Abki baar Modi Sarkaar’ made the people totally
devoted towards NDA which came to power with a thumping Majority.

11. Practice of Outside support: the coalitional era in Indian politics which began in a big
way in 1989 also brought forward the trend of supporting the government from outside. When
any political party supports a government from outside, it actually enjoys the ‘power sans
responsibility’ since they are not members of the government but influence all their decisions.
The VP Singh govt of 1989 was supported by BJP and left parties, Devegowda govt of 1996
and Gujral govt of 1998 were supported from outside by congress. Atal Bihari govt was
supported by TDP whereas the Manmohan Singh govt was supported by the left. The practice
of power without responsibility is proving hazardous to our democracy.

12. Hung Parliament: when no party gets a clear cut majority in the Lok Sabha it leads to a
Hung Parliament. 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th Lok Sabha met the same fate. Due to
this coalitional governments were formed which proved to be unstable.

13. Decline in the position of Parliament: The parliament is the platform to bring forward the
demands and grievances of the people by the elected representatives of the people. Hence it
should be functional for most of the time. In 1952, the Indian Parliament worked for only 123
days and in 2004 it worked for 80 days which is nothing in comparison to the British parliament
and American congress.

14. Weak position of the Prime Minister: the Prime minister ought to have a central position
whereby he decides about his council of ministers and their dismissal, distributes and shuffles
the portfolios amongst them. But the era of coalitional politics has eroded his powers
immensely. Now the Prime minister has to appease all his coalitional partners while selecting
his council of ministers. He is also bound by the common minimum program of the coalition
while he indulges in policy making.

Indian Govt & Politics by J S Badyal