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Political PartiesP o l i t i c a l Pa r t i e sIn this tour of democracy, we have come across political parties severaltimes. In Class IX, we noticed the role of political parties in the rise ofdemocracies, in the formation of constitutional designs, in electoralpolitics and in the making and working of governments. In thistextbook, we have glanced at political parties as vehicles of federalsharing of political power and as negotiators of social divisions inthe arena of democratic politics. Before concluding this tour, let ustake a close look at the nature and working of political parties,especially in our country. We begin by asking two common questions:Why do we need parties? How many parties are good for a democracy?In the light of these, we introduce the national and regional politicalparties in today’s India and then look at what is wrong with politicalparties and what can be done about it.Chapter 6Overview712015-16(19/01/2015)
Why do we need political parties?So, you agreewith me. Partiesare partial,partisan and leadto partitions.Parties donothing butdivide people.That is their realfunction!Political parties are easily one of the mostvisible institutions in a democracy. Formost ordinary citizens, democracy is equalto political parties. If you travel to remoteparts of our country and speak to theless educated citizens, you could comeacross people who may not knowanything about our Constitution or aboutthe nature of our government. Butchances are that they would knowsomething about our political parties. Atthe same time this visibility does not meanpopularity. Most people tend to be verycritical of political parties. They tend toblame parties for all that is wrong withour democracy and our political life.Parties have become identified withsocial and political divisions.Therefore, it is natural to ask – dowe need political parties at all? Abouthundred years ago there were fewcountries of the world that had anypolitical party. Now there are few thatdo not have parties. Why did politicalparties become so omnipresent indemocracies all over the world? Let usfirst answer what political parties are andwhat they do, before we say why we needthem. (1) M Govarthan (2) A Muralidharan (3) M Moorthy (4) T Singaravelou, The HinduDemocratic PoliticsMeaningA political party is a group of peoplewho come together to contest electionsand hold power in the government. Theyagree on some policies and programmesfor the society with a view to promotethe collective good. Since there can bedifferent views on what is good for all,(1)(3)(2)Election Commission has officially banned wallwriting by parties during election times. Mostpolitical parties argue that was the cheapest way fortheir campaign. These election times used tocreate amazing graffiti on the walls. Here are someexamples from Tamil Nadu.(4)722015-16(19/01/2015)
RK Laxman - Brushing up the yearsThus, parties reflect fundamentalpolitical divisions in a society. Parties areabout a part of the society and thusinvolve PARTISANSHIP. Thus a party isknown by which part it stands for, whichpolicies it supports and whose interestsit upholds. A political party has threecomponents:l the leaders,l the active members andl the followersFunctionsWhat does a political party do? Basically,political parties fill political offices andexercise political power. Parties do soby performing a series of functions:1 Parties contest elections. In mostdemocracies, elections are fought mainlyamong the candidates put up by politicalparties. Parties select their candidates indifferent ways. In some countries, suchas the USA, members and supportersof a party choose its candidates. Nowmore and more countries are followingthis method. In other countries like India,top party leaders choose candidates forcontesting elections.2 Parties put forward differentpolicies and programmes and thevoters choose from them. Each of usmay have different opinions and viewson what policies are suitable for thesociety. But no government can handlesuch a large variety of views. In ademocracy, a large number of similaropinions have to be grouped togetherto provide a direction in which policiescan be formulated by the governments.This is what the parties do. A partyreduces a vast multitude of opinions intoPartisan: A personwho is stronglycommitted to a party,group or faction.Partisanship is markedby a tendency to take aside and inability to takea balanced view on anissue.P o l i t i c a l Pa r t i e sparties try to persuade people why theirpolicies are better than others. They seekto implement these policies by winningpopular support through elections.732015-16(19/01/2015)
a few basic positions which it supports.A government is expected to baseits policies on the line taken by theRULING PARTY.3 Parties play a decisive role in makinglaws for a country. Formally, laws aredebated and passed in the legislature. Butsince most of the members belong to aparty, they go by the direction of theparty leadership, irrespective of theirpersonal opinions.4 Parties form and run governments.As we noted last year, the big policydecisions are taken by political executivethat comes from the political parties.Parties recruit leaders, train them and thenmake them ministers to run thegovernment in the way they want.Democratic PoliticsOkay, grantedthat we can’t livewithout politicalparties. But tellme on whatgrounds dopeople support apolitical party?Ruling Party: Politicalparty that runsgovernment.5 Those parties that lose in the electionsplay the role of opposition to the partiesin power, by voicing different views andcriticising government for its failures orwrong policies. Opposition parties alsomobilise opposition to the government.6 Parties shape public opinion. Theyraise and highlight issues. Parties havelakhs of members and activists spreadall over the country. Many of the pressuregroups are the extensions of politicalparties among different sections ofsociety. Parties sometimes also launchmovements for the resolution ofproblems faced by people. Oftenopinions in the society crystallise on thelines parties take.7 Parties provide people access togovernment machinery and welfareschemes implemented by governments.For an ordinary citizen it is easy toapproach a local party leader than agovernment officer. That is why, they feelclose to parties even when they do notfully trust them. Parties have to ber esponsive to people’s needs anddemands. Otherwise people can rejectthose parties in the next elections.NecessityThis list of functions in a sense answersthe question asked above: we needpolitical parties because they perform allthese functions. But we still need to askwhy modern democracies cannot existwithout political parties. We canunderstand the necessity of politicalparties by imagining a situation withoutparties. Every candidate in the electionswill be independent. So no one will beable to make any promises to the peopleabout any major policy changes. Thegovernment may be formed, but itsutility will remain ever uncertain. Electedrepresentatives will be accountable to theirconstituency for what they do in thelocality. But no one will be responsiblefor how the country will be run.We can also think about it by lookingat the non-party based elections to thepanchayat in many states. Although, theparties do not contest formally, it isgenerally noticed that the village gets splitinto more than one faction, each ofwhich puts up a ‘panel’ of its candidates.This is exactly what the party does. Thatis the reason we find political parties inalmost all countries of the world,whether these countries are big or small,old or new, developed or developing.The rise of political parties is directlylinked to the emergence ofrepresentative democracies. As we haveseen, large societies need representativedemocracy. As societies became largeand complex, they also needed someagency to gather different views onvarious issues and to present these tothe government. They needed742015-16(19/01/2015)
some ways, to bring variousrepresentatives together so that aresponsible government could beformed. They needed a mechanismto support or restrain thegovernment, make policies, justify oroppose them. Political parties fulfillthese needs that every representativegovernment has. We can say thatparties are a necessary condition fora democracy. (1) C V Subrahmanyan (2) K Gopinathan(3) A Chakrabarty, The HinduCategorise these photographs by the functions of political parties theyillustrate. Find one photograph or news clipping from your own area foreach of the functions listed above.2131: Activists of BJP Mahila Morcha demonstrate against hike in prices of onions and LPG inVisakhapatnam.2: Minister distributes Rs One lakh cheque to the families of hooch victims at their houses.3: Activists of CPI (M), CPI, OGP and JD (S) take out a rally in Bhubaneswar to protest againstPOSCO, the Korean steel company for being permitted by the State Government to export ironore from Orissa to feed steel plants in China and Korea.How many parties should we have?parties are effectively in the race to winelections and form the government. Sothe question, then is: how many majoror effective parties are good for ademocracy?P o l i t i c a l Pa r t i e sIn a democracy any group of citizens isfree to form a political party. In thisformal sense, there are a large numberof political parties in each country. Morethan 750 parties are registered with theElection Commission of India. But notall these parties are serious contenders inthe elections. Usually only a handful ofIn some countries, only one party isallowed to control and run the government.These are called one-party systems.752015-16(19/01/2015)
Amoral forceinpolitics?What did Kishenji mean by an alternative political formation? Thequestion came up in a conversation between Sudha, Karuna,Shaheen and Gracy. All four women had led very powerful people’smovements in different parts of the country. They were meeting ina village in Orissa, away from their day-to-day struggles, to think afresh the future ofpeople’s movements.The discussion naturally turned to Kishenji, who was regarded as a friend, politicalphilosopher and moral guide by all the movement groups in the country. He had arguedthat people’s movement should embrace politics openly. His argument was simple yetpowerful. Movements focused on a single issue are suitable as long as we wish to achievelimited changes in a particular aspect of life. But if we wish to bring about a fundamentalsocial transformation, or basic change even in one aspect of life, we would need a politicalorganisation. People’s movement must establish a new political formation to act as a moralforce in politics. This was an urgent task, he said, because all the existing political partieshad become irrelevant for social transformation.“But Kishenji never clarified what that organisation will be. He talked of an alternativepolitical formation or a third force in politics. But did he mean a political party?” saidGracy. She felt that an old style political party was not the right instrument for socialchange.Sudha agreed with her. “I have thought about it several times. I agree that all thestruggles that we are involved with – the struggle against displacement, againstglobalisation, against caste and gender oppression and for an alternative kind ofdevelopment – all this is political. But the moment we form a party, all the goodwill wehave earned all these years will be lost. People will think of us as no different from otherpoliticians.”Shaheen did not agree with them: “Let us be veryclear. Kishenji wanted all the people’s movementsto forge a new political party. Of course hewanted this party to be a different kind of a party.He was not for political alternatives, but for analternative kind of politics.” ZubanDemocratic Politics“Besides”, added Karuna, “we have seen that a lotcan be achieved by putting pressure on theexisting political parties. We tried putting upcandidates in panchayat elections, but the resultswere not very encouraging. People respect ourwork, they even adore us, but when it comes tovoting they go for the established politicalparties.”Kishenji is no more. What would be youradvice to these four activists? Should theyform a new political party? Can a politicalparty become a moral force in politics? Whatshould that party be like?762015-16(19/01/2015)
In some countries, power usuallychanges between two main parties.Several other parties may exist, contestelections and win a few seats in thenational legislatures. But only the twomain parties have a serious chance ofwinning majority of seats to formgovernment. Such a party system is calledtwo-party system. The United States ofAmerica and the United Kingdom areexamples of two-party system.If several parties compete forpower, and more than two partieshave a reasonable chance of comingto power either on their own strengthor in alliance with others, we call it amultiparty system. Thus in India, wehave a multiparty system. In thissystem, the government is formed byvarious parties coming together in acoalition. When several parties in amulti-party system join hands for thepurpose of contesting elections andwinning power, it is called an allianceor a front. For example, in India therewere three such major alliances in 2004parliamentary elections– the NationalDemocratic Alliance, the UnitedProgressive Alliance and the Left Front.The multiparty system often appearsvery messy and leads to politicalinstability. At the same time, this systemallows a variety of interests andopinions to enjoy politicalrepresentation.So, which of these is better? Perhapsthe best answer to this very commonquestion is that this is not a very goodquestion. Party system is not somethingany country can choose. It evolves overa long time, depending on the nature ofsociety, its social and regional divisions,its history of politics and its system ofelections. These cannot be changed veryquickly. Each country develops a partysystem that is conditioned by its specialcircumstances. For example, if India hasevolved a multiparty system, it is becausethe social and geographical diversity insuch a large country is not easilyabsorbed by two or even three parties.No system is ideal for all countries andall situations.I wonder howpoliticiansmanage thesecoalitions. I can’teven rememberthe names of allthe parties.Let us apply what we have learnt about party systems to the variousstates within India. Here are three major types of party systems thatexist at the State level. Can you find the names of at least two States for eachof these types?l Two-party systeml Multiparty system with two alliancesl Multiparty systemP o l i t i c a l Pa r t i e sIn Class IX, we noted that in China, onlythe Communist Party is allowed to rule.Although, legally speaking, people arefree to form political parties, it does nothappen because the electoral system doesnot permit free competition for power.We cannot consider one-party system asa good option because this is not ademocratic option. Any democraticsystem must allow at least two partiesto compete in elections and provide afair chance for the competing parties tocome to power.772015-16(19/01/2015)
Popularparticipation It is often said that political parties are facingina crisis because they are very unpopular andthe citizens are indifferent to political parties.political partiesThe available evidence shows that this belief is onlypartly true for India. The evidence, based on a series oflarge sample surveys conducted over several decades, showsthat:l Political parties do not enjoy much trust among the people inSouth Asia. The proportion of those who say their trust in politicalparties is ‘not much’ or ‘not at all’ is more than those who have‘some’ or ‘great’ trust.l The same is true of most other democracies as well. Politicalparties are one of the least trusted institutions all over the world.l Yet the level of participation in the activities of political partieswas fairly high. The proportion of those who said they weremembers of some political party was higher in India than manyadvanced countries like Canada, Japan, Spain and South Korea.l Over the last threedecades the proportion ofthose who report to bemembers of political partiesin India has gone upsteadily.Democratic Politicsl The proportion of thosewho say they feel ‘close toa political party’ has alsogone up in India in thisperiod.Source: SDSA Team, State of Democracy in South Asia, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007782015-16(19/01/2015)
Tab - The Calgary Sun, Cagle Cartoons Inc.Crunching the NumbersDoes the cartoon reflect the data graphics shown on theprevious page?National political partiesEvery party in the country has toregister with the Election Commission.While the Commission treats all partiesequally, it offers some special facilities tolarge and established parties. Theseparties are given a unique symbol – onlythe official candidates of that party canuse that election symbol. Parties that getthis privilege and some other specialfacilities are ‘recognised’ by the ElectionCommission for this purpose. That iswhy these parties are called, ‘recognisedpolitical parties’. The ElectionCommission has laid down detailedcriteria of the proportion of votes andseats that a party must get in order to bea recognised party. A party that securesat least six per cent of the total votes inan election to the Legislative Assemblyof a State and wins at least two seats isrecognised as a State party. A party thatsecures at least six per cent of the totalvotes in Lok Sabha elections or Assemblyelections in four States and wins at leastfour seats in the Lok Sabha is recognisedas a national party.P o l i t i c a l Pa r t i e sDemocracies that follow a federal systemall over the world tend to have two kindsof political parties: parties that are presentin only one of the federal units andparties that are present in several or allunits of the federation. This is the case inIndia as well. There are some countrywide parties, which are called ‘nationalparties’. These parties have their units invarious states. But by and large, all theseunits follow the same policies,programmes and strategy that is decidedat the national level.According to this classification, therewere six national recognised parties inthe country in 2006. Let us learnsomething about each of these parties.792015-16(19/01/2015)
Democratic PoliticsIndian National Congress(INC): Popularly known asthe Congress Party. One ofthe oldest parties of theworld. Founded in 1885 and hase xperienced many splits. Played adominant role in Indian politics at thenational and state level for several decadesafter India’s Independence. Under theleadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, the partysought to build a modern seculardemocratic republic in India. Rulingparty at the centre till 1977 and then from1980 to 1989. After 1989, its supportdeclined, but it continues to be presentthroughout the country, cutting acrosssocial divisions. A centrist party (neitherrightist nor leftist) in its ideologicalorientation, the party espousessecularism and welfare of weakersections and minorities. Supports neweconomic reforms but with a humanface. Emerged as the largest party with145 members in the Lok Sabha electionsheld in 2004. Currently leads the rulingUnited Progressive Alliance coalitiongovernment at the Centre.Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP): Founded in 1980 byreviving the erstwhileBharatiya Jana Sangh.Wants to build a strong and modernIndia by drawing inspiration from India’sancient culture and values. Culturalnationalism (or ‘Hindutva’) is animportant element in its conception ofIndian nationhood and politics. Wantsfull territorial and political integration ofJammu and Kashmir with India, auniform civil code for all people livingin the country irrespective of religion,and ban on religious conversions. Itssupport base increased substantially inthe 1990s. Earlier limited to north andwest and to urban areas, the partyexpanded its support in the south, east,the north-east and to rural areas. Cameto power in 1998 as the leader of theNational Democratic Alliance includingseveral state and regional parties. Lostelections in 2004 and is the principalopposition party in the Lok Sabha.Bahujan SamajParty (BSP): Formedin 1984 under theleadership of KanshiRam. Seeks to represent and securepower for the bahujan samaj whichincludes the dalits, adivasis, OBCs andreligious minorities. Draws inspirationfrom the ideas and teachings of SahuMaharaj, Mahatma Phule, PeriyarRamaswami Naicker and BabasahebAmbedkar. Stands for the cause ofsecuring the interests and welfare of thedalits and oppressed people. It has itsmain base in the state of Uttar Pradeshand substantial presence in neighbouringstates like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,Uttarakhand, Delhi and Punjab. Formedgovernment in Uttar Pradesh severaltimes by taking the support of differentparties at different times. In the LokSabha elections held in 2004, it polledabout 5 per cent votes and secured 19seats in the Lok Sabha.Communist Party ofIndia - Marxist (CPI-M):Founded in 1964.Believes in MarxismLeninism. Supports socialism, secularismand democracy and opposes imperialismand communalism. Accepts democraticelections as a useful and helpful meansfor securing the objective of socioeconomic justice in India. Enjoys strongsupport in West Bengal, Kerala andTripura, especially among the poor,802015-16(19/01/2015)
factory workers, farmers, agriculturallabourers and the intelligentsia. Criticalof the new economic policies that allowfree flow of foreign capital and goodsinto the country. Has been in power inWest Bengal without a break for 30 years.In 2004 elections, it won about 6 percent of votes and 43 seats in the LokSabha. Currently supports the UPAgovernment from outside, withoutjoining the government.Communist Party ofIndia (CPI): Formedin 1925. Believes inMarxism-Leninism,secularism and democracy. Opposed tothe forces of secessionism andcommunalism. Accepts parliamentarydemocracy as a means of promotingthe interests of the working class, farmersand the poor. Became weak after thesplit in the party in 1964 that led to theformation of the CPI(M). Significantpresence in the states of Kerala, WestBengal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh andTamil Nadu. Its support base hadgradually declined over the years. Itsecured about 1.4 per cent votes and 10seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.Advocates the coming together of all leftparties to build a strong left front.Currently supports UPA governmentfrom outside.Nationalist CongressParty (NCP): Formed in1999 following a split in theCongress party. Espousesdemocracy, Gandhian secularism, equity,social justice and federalism. Wants thathigh offices in government be confinedto natural born citizens of the country.A major party in Maharashtra and has asignificant presence in Meghalaya,Manipur and Assam. A coalition partnerin the state of Maharashtra in alliancewith the Congress. Since 2004, a memberof the United Progressive Alliance.State partiesOver the last three decades, thenumber and strength of these parties hasexpanded. This made the Parliament ofIndia politically more and more diverse.No one national party is able to secureon its own a majority in Lok Sabha. Asa result, the national parties are compelledto form alliances with State parties. Since1996, nearly every one of the Stateparties has got an opportunity to be apart of one or the other national levelcoalition government. This hascontributed to the strengthening offederalism and democracy in ourcountry. (See the map on the next pagefor details of these parties).P o l i t i c a l Pa r t i e sOther than these six parties, most of themajor parties of the country are classifiedby the Election Commission as ‘Stateparties’. These are commonly referredto as regional parties. Yet these partiesneed not be regional in their ideologyor outlook. Some of these parties areall India parties that happen to havesucceeded only in some states. Parties likethe Samajwadi Party, Samata Party andRashtriya Janata Dal have national levelpolitical organisation with units in severalstates. Some of these parties like BijuJanata Dal, Sikkim Democratic Frontand Mizo National Front are consciousabout their State identity.812015-16(19/01/2015)
Democratic PoliticsNote: Telang ana became the 29th State of India on the 2nd June, 2014, after the reorganisa tion of the State of Andhra Pr adesh.822015-16(19/01/2015)
Challenges to political parties Riber Hansson - Svenska Dagbladet, Cagle Cartoons Inc.Berlusconi Puppet Theatreworking of political parties. Politicalparties need to face and overcome thesechallenges in order to remain effectiveinstruments of democracy.The first challenge is lack ofinternal democracy within parties. Allover the world there is a tendency inpolitical parties towards theconcentration of power in one or fewleaders at the top. Parties do not keepmembership registers, do not holdorganisational meetings, and do notconduct internal elections regularly.Ordinary members of the party do notget sufficient information on whathappens inside the party. They do nothave the means orthe connectionsneeded to influencethe decisions. As aresult the leadersassume greaterpower to makedecisions in thename of the party.Since one or fewleaders exerciseparamount powerin the party, thosewho disagree withthe leadership find itBerlusconi was the PrimeMinister of Italy. He is alsoone of the top businessmenin Italy. He is the leader of theForza Italia founded in 1993.His company owns TVchannels, the most importantpublishing company, a football club (AC Milan) and abank. This cartoon wasmade during the lastelections.Why don’t partiesgive enoughtickets towomen? Is thatalso due to lackof internaldemocracy?P o l i t i c a l Pa r t i e sWe have seen how crucial political partiesare for the working of democracy. Sinceparties are the most visible face ofdemocracy, it is natural that people blameparties for whatever is wrong with theworking of democracy. All over theworld, people express strongdissatisfaction with the failure of politicalparties to perform their functions well.This is the case in our country too.Popular dissatisfaction and criticism hasfocussed on four problem areas in the832015-16(19/01/2015)
difficult to continue in the party. Morethan loyalty to party principles andpolicies, personal loyalty to the leaderbecomes more important. Huffaker - Cagle Cartoons Inc., 16 June 2004Democratic PoliticsThe second challenge of dynasticsuccession is related to the first one. Sincemost political parties do not practiceopen and transparent procedures fortheir functioning, there are very few waysfor an ordinary worker to rise to the topin a party. Those who happen to be theleaders are in a position of unfairadvantage to favour people close tothem or even their family members. Inmany parties, the top positions are alwayscontrolled by members of one family.This is unfair to other members of thatparty. This is also bad for democracy,since people who do not have adequateexperience or popular support come tooccupy positions of power. Thistendency is present in some measure allover the world, including in some ofthe older democracies.The third challenge is about thegrowing role of money and musclepower in parties, especially duringelections. Since parties are focussed onlyon winning elections, they tend to useshort-cuts to win elections. They tend tonominate those candidates who have orcan raise lots of money. Rich people andcompanies who give funds to the partiestend to have influence on the policies anddecisions of the party. In some cases,parties support criminals who can winelections. Democrats all over the worldare worried about the increasing role ofrich people and big companies indemocratic politics.The fourth challenge is that veryoften parties do not seem to offer ameaningful choice to the voters. Inorder to offer meaningful choice, partiesmust be significantly different. In recentyears there has been a decline in theideological differences among parties inmost parts of the world. For example,the difference between theLabour Party and theConservative Party in Britain isvery little. They agree on morefundamental aspects but differonly in details on how policiesare to be framed andimplemented. In our countrytoo, the differences among all themajor parties on the economicpolicies have reduced. Thosewho want really different policieshave no option available to them.Sometimes people cannot evenelect very different leaders either,because the same set of leaderskeep shifting from one party toanother.This cartoon was drawn during the Presidency of George Bush of the RepublicanParty in the USA. The party’s symbol is elephant. The cartoon seems to suggestthat the Corporate America controls all major institutions of the country.842015-16(19/01/2015)
Manjul - DNADoes thissuggest that indemocraciespeople contestelections onlyto make money?But isn’t it truethat there arepoliticianscommitted tothe well-beingof the people?Can you identify which of the challenges described in this section are beinghighlighted in these cartoons (on pages 83 to 85)? What are the ways to curbthe misuse of money and muscle power in politics?How can parties be reformed?them do not wish to reform, how cananyone force them to change?Let us look at some of the recentefforts and suggestions in our countryto reform political parties and its leaders:l The Constitution was amended toprevent elected MLAs and MPs fromchanging parties. This was done becausemany elected representatives wereindulging in DEFECTION in order tobecome ministers or for cash rewards.Now the law says that if any MLA orDefection: Changingparty allegiance fromthe party on which aperson got elected (to alegislative body) to adifferent party.P o l i t i c a l Pa r t i e sIn order to face these challenges, politicalparties need to be reformed. Thequestion is: Are
P olitical P arties 71 Chapter 6 Overview In thi s tour of democr acy, we hav e come acr oss political parties sev eral times. In Class IX
