Achyut Krishna
Hazarika
(Hindu College, University of Delhi)
In Maharashtra, recent splits in the ruling
party led to the fall of an alliance government which had acclaimed dynasts and
popular leaders. Similarly, in the recently-concluded presidential election, it
is reported that at least 21 MLAs of Assam's Opposition front voted for the
NDA-supported candidate. This highlights a huge vacuum in intra-party
discipline and coherence of ideologies.
Thus the need for today's discussion – whether India is being held back due to a lack of democracy in its political parties, or does the freedom to start a new political party compensate for this defect?
Political parties in India: A backgrounder
A party system is a concept in comparative political science concerning the system of government by political parties in a democratic country. In India, there is a multi-party system in place, with the number of parties at the national level fluctuating. Furthermore, India has a diverse range of political parties, including left, centrist, and right-wing parties, as well as communal and non-communal parties.
Issues with political parties in India:
In India, there is no real movement toward the democratization of parties. The selection of candidates, Chief Ministers and office-bearers of party units is usually left to the discretion of a handful of leaders who take decisions behind closed doors. "It is not that India did not know what is democracy," Dr BR Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, told the Constituent Assembly while presenting the final draft of the Constitution. Further Ambedkar cited, "There was a time when India was studded with republics, and even where there were Mahajanpada monarchies, they were either elected or limited. They were never absolute. It is not that India did not know Parliaments or Parliamentary procedures. A study of the Buddhist Bhikshu Sanghas discloses that not only there were Parliaments - for the Sanghas were nothing but Parliaments- but the Sanghas knew and observed all the rules of Parliamentary Procedure known to modern times."
The most striking feature of the Indian party system is its lack of structure. Political parties live and die by their organization. Groupism inside India's party structure is a major problem for every political party. This shatters a party's cohesiveness, causing it to split into several factions. Instances are provided by the INC, NCP and TMC. Moreover, political parties do not hesitate to utilize extra-constitutional ways of gaining power in addition to legitimate means. Examples are Resort Politics, Bus Politics.
Furthermore, in recent times, it has been noticed that political parties turn to populist politics in order to gain power. They take unfair advantage of people's emotions and compulsions, promote populist slogans, and mislead the public – examples include temple reconstruction movements, ghar wapsi etc.
This leads to an unstructured party politics with lack of democratic discipline and coherence of mandate among party members. It has been observed that members of various political parties are unconcerned about party discipline, preferring instead to sling dirt at one another.
How this impact election mandates?
India is often accused of being a flawed democracy on accounts of its alleged far-right-wing political government. There has been increased pressure on human rights groups, intimidation of journalists and activists, and a spate of attacks, especially against Muslims. To tackle this, though, a strong and well-organized opposition is required for parliamentary democracy to succeed, yet it does not exist. Moreover, there are several national and regional political parties performing the role of Opposition at the moment, both at the national and state levels, but they are not unified on many political topics and do not have a uniform agenda. This ultimately leads to an unstable government as witnessed in the case of Karnataka and Maharashtra. We have largely seen the perils of poor decision-making of politicians due to a lack of consensus among the allies.
Such instances make us to think that Indian political parties have become oligarchies. India's success in consolidating a democratic system of government has paradoxically forestalled pressure for party reform. Most parties are subservient to one supreme leader who can impose his/her offspring on the party, and even electoral defeat does not loosen their control or hold over the party. Moreover, the election manifesto is nowhere relevant post-election. Political parties with the exception of the Left parties still refuse to lay down settled and predictable procedures for almost everything they do, from the selection of candidates to the framing of a manifesto.
While many argue that intra-party democracy is essential to sustain broader political democracy, this is not a panacea for the numerous problems facing parties. The biggest weakness of parties is that they are leader-centric and most leaders are unwilling to institutionalize the procedures. As a result, there is a major challenge facing the party system. Party activity driven by partisan mobilization lies at the root of much of the schism and disruption of Indian politics today. An example is Leftists frequently meeting the Chinese.
Party reform is a pressing need in India:
The absence of intra-party democracy adversely impacts the constitutional right of all citizens to equal political opportunity to participate in politics and contest elections. With inner-party discipline and democratic means, a leader with strong grass-root connection would not be sidelined. This will allow less factionalism and division of parties, thereby ensuring a stable government in power. Moreover, a transparent party structure with transparent processes will allow proper ticket distribution and candidate selection. The selection would not be based on the whims of a few powerful leaders in the party, but will represent the choice of the larger party.
In addition, every political party has state and local body units, an election at each level will allow creation of power centres at different levels. This will allow decentralization of power and the decision making will take place at the ground level.
Besides, a democratic party will be accountable to its party members, for they will lose elections in the next cycle for their shortcomings.
Currently, there is no express provision for internal democratic regulation of political parties in India, except political defection. The Election Commission of India's power to require parties to hold regular internal elections for office bearers, and candidate selection is compromised in the absence of any penal provisions.
It shall be the duty of the political party to take appropriate steps to ensure holding of elections at all levels. The political party shall hold elections in an unpartisan ways by their 'karyakartas'. In addition, the Anti-Defection Act of 1985 requires the party legislators to act according to the party whip which is decided by the diktats of the highest party leadership. One way to democratize political parties is to promote intra-party dissent. Moreover, seats can be reserved for women and members of the backward community, including minorities.
In an ideal scenario, the ECI shall be competent to inquire into allegations of non-compliance of any of the provisions requiring elections. Besides, ECI should have the penal power to deregister a party until free and fair elections in the party are conducted.
Way forward
The 170th report of the Law Commission of India on reform of electoral laws dedicated an entire chapter on the necessity of providing laws relating to internal democracy within parties.
It observed that a political party which does not respect democratic principles in its internal working cannot be expected to respect those principles in the governance of the country. Likewise, the National Commission for Review of Working of Constitution states that there should be comprehensive legislation regulating the registration and functioning of political parties or alliances of parties in India.
Politics is inseparable from political parties as they are the prime instruments for the execution of democracy in the country. We must emphasize our PM's call for a debate on internal democracy in political parties. It is imperative that political parties open their eyes to growing calls for electoral political reforms and take steps towards bringing in intra-party democracy.