Recent Trends in Indian Politics

-Saurangshu Sarkar

First of all, Indian politics is a very complicated and very diversified topic to discuss
upon.
When we try to understand the characteristics of politics, the chief characteristics
of politics is that its nature keeps on changing with the passage of time and situations
and this is the position of the Indian politics. For example, in pre independence era,
the nature of Indian politics was different, similarly lots of changes have taken place
in its nature after the independence.
We also agree that change is the law of nature. However, the changes are
revolutionary in the present age due to a number of factors like information
communication technology, development in the field of transportation and science
as well as in socio- economic sectors around the globe. Indian politics cannot remain
unaffected of these changes that's why it has faced a number of challenges in the
new situations. After evaluating its performance since independence, we came to
know that so many new tendencies or challenges as I said earlier have emerged in it,
which has widely influenced the nature of the Indian politics. India is a pluralistic
society and the various groups, castes, religions, minorities and the people speaking
various languages have influenced the Indian politics, as a result of which so many
new trends have emerged.
We all are aware that some sort of paradigm shift is taking place in Indian politics.
But what exactly is it? where is it preceding? And what structure is it going to take?
The answers to this question are still very unclear to us. We don't know where
exactly it's leading. At sometimes it shows us the replication of the past, at
sometimes it looks as if something new is going to happen. In this context, let me
dot down a few things, few trends which appears to me.
First democratic decline- Over last few years, it has been mentioned that worldwide
in many countries, there has been a trend called democratic decline that is the quality
of democracy has declined some countries that have been mentioned are- Hungary,
Poland, Brazil and of course India. These are some of the major
 countries. Now, what happened to Indian politics? The thing is that sometimes we
feel some sort of majoritarian ideology, sometimes we feel the constitution learn
narratives too which we had been used to is now undergoing change. Because you
see our constitution created a political culture to some extent it had a contribution.
Over many years we talked about democracy, we talked about secularism but now it
seems that they are on the backstage. This is one of the parameters of the democratic
decline.
Indian media- since last decade there had been a gradual shrinking of Indian media.
It's something of noteworthy, why? Because we can see unlike UK, USA or
Australia where media was concentrated in a few hands, in India, the story is
different. Here, the media is very much well dispersed throughout the country. There
are many English language newspaper throughout the country, about 15 major
English language newspapers, apart from these each state has around 3-4 local
language newspaper, that way there was an optimism that there is diversification of
news, news items etc. Though since last decade things seemed to be reversing, how?
We may revisit the meltdown of 2008. The major source of media is advertisement
revenue. For example, West Bengal, earlier major Bengali newspapers had around a
page of advertisement but now it has around 2 pages. Now, what happened, after the
meltdown, the corporate funding, that is the funding from the diverse corporate
sources, that dried up. As a result, monopoly occurred in the Indian economy,
monopolistic power increased in Indian economy which also affected on Indian
media. As a result, what we find? Earlier we have seen plurality of media. Now there
are many channels but very few owners which in comparison to the previous time
there was many channels and many owners. This monopolization and this are quite
encatched by the ruling party, that way there is also a shrinkage of media democracy
in India.
At the same time, we can see other things like, as I mentioned earlier- the replication
of the past that is the subaltern forces throughout the country, they are voicing their
claims. We can also see the prolonged farmers movement in Delhi. This way, what
I mean is in parliament there may be absolute majority but that doesn't mean the
society gives the government of free hand.
Corruption- The most widely spread endemic in India is corruption, which must be
handled quickly and wisely. There is hardly any office, in both public and private
sector, that is untouched from this disease. Likewise, the same goes with Indian
political leaders too. This low like attitude creates a shade of disbelief among the
people and they think the whole political process is wrong and corrupted due to few
corrupted officials and persons. There is no telling how much time comes to act, we,
the people of India, should not be lacking.
The mentioned emerging trends in Indian politics can be matched with features of
post-democracy. No doubt, these trends are inevitable in the post-globalization
period. In liberal democracy where materialism, consumerism are preferred
vigorously, the socialism is thing of the past, the people are not against the media
bias. But the way media is imbibing a sense of opinion in the mind of people is very
alarming and these are not truly democratic. The demonetization, digital India, Make
in India, surgical strike and then Balakot air strike by Indian Air Force in the early
morning hours of 26 February, 2019 against POK terrorist were so strongly
propagated that almost everyone thought that corruption, black money, terrorism
will vanish away. But in real sense it is not abated.
Conclusion
The nexus of politician-corporate-media has forced the policy preferences of the
political parties ignore the democratic norms and people's choices. In the wake of
these effects, the role of media has also tilted towards market forces by ignoring the
democratic responsibilities. As such, there emerged trends like authoritative decision
making by political elites but under democratic framework, dominance of electoral
prospects over ideologies/ethics of parties, undemocratic trends in party politics,
growing roles of media in manufacturing political dissent and support, thereby
ignoring people and keeping them aloof from democratic processes and political
participation.
The mentioned emerging trends in Indian politics can be matched with features of
post-democracy. No doubt, these trends are inevitable in the post-globalization
period but these are not truly democratic. The nexus of politician-corporate-media
has forced the policy preferences of the political parties ignore the democratic norms
and people's choices. In the wake of these effects, the role of media has also tilted
towards market forces by ignoring the democratic responsibilities. As such, there
emerged trends like authoritative decision making by political elites but under
democratic framework, dominance of electoral prospects over ideologies/ethics of
parties, undemocratic trends in party politics, growing roles of media in
manufacturing political dissent and support, thereby ignoring people and keeping
them aloof from democratic processes and political participation.