Coalition Poltics

A democracy represents a system of governance where in an ideology & the power of the people is bought forth by an elected representative. The idea of a democracy is in granting power to the people & the exercise of this power is done by an elected representative. Coalition governments in India have undermined this trait by compromising ideologies in pursuit of power. The obvious question would be if a coalition rule truly represents the ideology of the people, as it is fundamentally engrained to do. The rise and influence of coalition politics is indisputable in the Indian political scenario henceforth. There is no doubt that it is here to stay albeit some glitches that could curtail smooth governance.
One of the biggest disadvantages of a coalition is instability due to conflict of interests. During the Indo-us nuclear deal, there was a lot of anxiety in the Indian political diasporas. The vulnerability of a coalition government was exposed when the left withdrew its support in the standoff with UPA on the nuclear deal. Soon enough the opportunistic Samajwadi party stalwart Amar Singh jumped onto the coalition bandwagon. This had Mukesh Ambani twiddling his fingers as he knew his brother Anil’s proximity to Amar Singh. A chain reaction ensued as Mukesh arranged a meeting with Manmohan Singh seemingly to protect his interests. This made news all over as his actions weren’t hard to read. It invoked a reaction from Amar Singh too as he proclaimed he would push for a tax on private oil refineries in the country, which could seriously curtail Mukesh’s expansion plans. This has set up a dangerous precedent in the Indian scenario. In the words of Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a political commentator, it was the case of “The tail that can wag the dog”. The effects of Singh’s declaration was a fall in Mukesh’s stocks & it turned even more bitter when Mukesh stopped Anil’s Reliance telecommunication from merging with MTN stating his permission was required for the deal to go through. Amar Singh called Mukesh’s act disgusting and flexed his new found political muscle by asking the PM to interfere. A small regional party was having a tidal effect on the Indian political and business scenario. This does not augur well for a developing country like India as it shows politics and business are entwined. It reflects poorly about the country’s image to the rest of the world and possible investors. Since then there have disinvestment policies that the government has failed to carry out bogging down to pressure. The PM seems to be protecting party interests rather than act at the behest of our country’s development. Coalition parties in developing countries do not augur well for our development. Everyone only needs their slice of the pie and serve their self interests.

But averting a coalition government is no easy job once we decide that it is a hindrance in development. The decision is in the hands of the people and this fundamental trait of democracy has to be respected. One of the ways I think it can be avoided is to curtail the formation of regional political parties. Parties are mushrooming all over India in the name of religion, caste, creed and of course the opportunists. Such narrow minded splitting up of the Indian proletariat and bourgeois does not adhere well for the populace. For instance Baba Ramdev launched a political party stating he wants to cleanse the political system and get back money from banks in Switzerland which he in turn believes will automatically make India a superpower. That is actually his basis for forming a political party. There was news item wherein people of the gay and lesbian community wanted to form a political party because they are tired of being misrepresented on TV. Do you think we should blame them for having such short term motives? No, cause the election commission doesn’t care too much. So, why not have your own political party? We also have to get down to improving the quality of votes. In permitting only the educated to vote will wipe out nearly half the vote bank. It will only result in increasing the discrepancies between the rich and the poor, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. A better option would be to increase the present voting age to 21. It will definitely improve quality as a lot of graduates would come into the fold.

To change the onus is on us. Convention alone doesn’t dictate what is right. Just because people break a traffic light we should not take it for granted and do so too. We can show alternate paths to people by being pro-active ourselves. You might not stop everyone but someone might just become aware that he is at fault and some others might even follow your lead too. I do hope we can change and inspire others to change. The idea of a democracy is to place power within us. We can get rid of this menace in our country and elect a responsible government only if we believe. ‘VOTE RESPONSIBILY’.