The Election Carnival - 2014(Part-2)

Regional Political Parties: The Spoilers

The election carnival - 2014 is being celebrated across the country in full swing and the ones who are more excited and actively participating are the regional parties. Yes they believe that it is their time to play a pivotal role in helping to influence the formation of the next union government. Many political thinkers agree on the same. Media speculations even show the possibility that India’s next general elections will produce a “third front” government headed by the leader of a regional party. May be or may not be so but certainly these regional parties are spoiling the show of national parties at the center.

India as a country, since its attainment of independence 65 years ago has undergone many changes. Economic, social and political aspirations of the people have also undergone tremendous changes. The various political parties, organizations, movements are the guiding force behind these changes. The political party in power in a particular region and its ideology vastly determines the conditions of the people of that region. The 1984 elections was the last election in which single party got the clear mandate to form a government at the center. All the elections thereafter resulted in coalition governments, which is the clear indication of the influence of regional politics. People are the masters in Democracy; they decide how they want to be governed. The single party monopoly for first 30 years after independence proves that as long as the party had good intentions they supported it, it was only after Emergency that they seriously contemplated for an alternative party. Emergency proved that over popularity of single party will place wide powers in narrow minded people who will exploit the power for personal deeds.

The rise of regional parties has been proved beneficial as far as the regional, local issues are concerned. Many states like Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and most of the North-eastern states have developed under the governance of regional parties. Granted, regional parties do currently rule several key, extremely large states, such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal (which together are home to nearly 400 million Indians). People have shown trust on these parties and the government has also worked for the welfare of its crowd. But when it comes to the center, the scenario is completely different and a different approach needs to be adopted in dealing with these regional parties.

The major concern emerging from the multi-party system is its inherent threat to the unity and security of the country. The local parties for their political benefits divide the people of different states on the lines of language, culture, traditions etc. This affects the overall unity and integrity of the country. E.g. several tense situations have been witnessed in states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Punjab. Disputes between the states that are ruled by the local parties becomes difficult to settle since they raise the dispute from administrative and governance level to political and personal level by exploiting the sentiments of the people of the individual states. This often culminates in violence through strikes, bandh and in the worst case, attack on the other state people. E.g. Cauvery dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra political group’s intolerance towards people from other states.

The local parties that are part of the ruling coalition government will influence the government to divert more annual budget funds to their states at the expense of other states that are ruled by the Opposition parties. The state governments that get more funds can use these funds for subsidizing more and more basic necessities thereby making the people lethargic and killing the motivation to work hard. Subsidizing the scant resources in particular state can impact the prices in other states. The local parties in the small states like in North-Eastern India will not get much support from the Center in terms of development and security of its people even if they are part of the coalition, since they send only a handful of members to the parliament. The fact that they doesn't affect the national politics as much as the larger states result in such states getting smaller aid in terms of funds and other development activities.

Beyond India’s domestic political fray, regional parties are sometimes said to have a growing influence over foreign policy. Few can dispute that the role of regional parties as foreign policy actors has grown over time, but it is less clear that recent headline-grabbing tussles signify a new or more significant twist in the struggle for a voice in this arena. This will affect India’s credibility in the global front and portray India as unreliable in terms of sticking to its long-held policies. E.g. By voting against Sri Lanka in UN resolution on war crimes against Tamils owing to pressure from a regional party, India broke away from a long held tradition of not voting for country-specific resolutions. This has significantly affected Indo-Sri Lanka relations. A regional leader personally scuttled a water-sharing agreement that New Delhi had painstakingly negotiated with Bangladesh over the Teesta River. The treaty had been a critical component of the central government’s plans to improve relations with its neighbour to the east—that is, until the leader effectively vetoed the move. Yet, this kind of foreign policy maneuvering is not as new as is often advertised. Since the opening up of the Indian economy in 1991, states have consistently exercised their new found economic policy latitude to craft their own strategies to woo foreign investors irrespective of center’s outlook. And on pure foreign policy matters, India’s relations with its neighbours—whether it be Pakistan to the west, Sri Lanka to the south, or Bangladesh to the east—have for many years been coloured by the respective positions of the ruling elites in the border states of Punjab, Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.

Every system will have the loop holes; it’s the number and the plug-ability of loopholes that distinguish each system from the other in terms of efficiency. The emergence of regional parties as major centers of power in India’s politics, economics, and society is one of the most important developments in the country’s post independence history. Yet, the regional revolution in contemporary Indian politics should not be overstated. India’s regional parties have indeed already risen; whether they can rise further is unclear. And come the general election in 2014, regional parties will play a pivotal role. It would be interesting to see the impact of these regional parties during the general elections, which is believed to be a beginning of political revolution in India.

NOTE: This is my personal point of view and opinion based on my observation and research. It has nothing to do with any past, present or future of any political party or individual. The aim of posting this is just to share my view.