Coalition Politics: Why did the era of coalition politics return?
opinion
lekhaka-Anil Tiwari
Coalition Politics: With the Modi government entering its tenth year, it seems as if the possibility of forming a government with full majority next time has started getting hazy. This is the reason that on the one hand, while the opposition parties are trying to unite under the leadership of the Congress, on the other hand, Narendra Modi, who formed the government with full majority for two consecutive terms, has also started efforts to revive the NDA. On July 18, away from Delhi, 26 opposition parties are discussing the strategy to defeat Modi in Bangalore, whereas in Delhi, 38 parties under NDA are being claimed to gather.
Incidentally all this is happening at a time when the silver jubilee year of coalition politics is going on. Exactly 25 years ago in 1998, a political front named National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was formed. The credit for this goes to former Prime Minister Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The BJP, which was made almost a political untouchable after the Babri demolition, not only got a lifeline from this, but for the first time in the country, a non-Congress government completed its term under the leadership of Atal ji, who was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the third time.
In fact, the goal of coalition politics is all-inclusive. This is the medium to move from Bahujan Hitaya to Sarvajan Hitaya. But the contradictions of coalition politics are also many. The leaders of the small parties involved in the coalition want to fulfill their personal interests by putting pressure on the party leading the coalition due to personal interests and political ambitions.
In an India full of political diversities, coalition governments are both a reality and a fiction. Perhaps that is why the Congress party, which has been calling mixed governments a curse for the country since independence, implemented the UPA alliance in the year 2004 on the lines of thorn by thorn and ruled Raisina Hills for 10 consecutive years on the basis of the alliance. But after the BJP got a clear majority in the year 2014, the importance of small parties is not what it was in the 90s. In the last 9 years, many efforts were made for opposition unity, but the result was only a cipher. Now that the general elections of 2024 are drawing near, the focus is once again on alliances.
Recently, 15 opposition parties sitting in Patna are again sitting in Bangalore for pre-poll alliance. On the other hand, the leaders of the ruling party, surrounded by allegations of ignoring the small allies in the pride of clear majority, are working day and night to increase the size of their coalition by joining small parties of the states against the unity of the opposition. That is, from where the politics of alliance started 25 years ago, it has once again reached the same turning point.
As far as the alliance between political parties in the country is concerned to form an electoral front, it has been coming to the fore in different forms since independence.
The talk of an alliance of opposition parties within the House started with the formation of the first Lok Sabha in 1952. The Congress won 364 seats in the 499-member parliament. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was successful in bringing together Jansangh, Hindu Mahasabha, Akali Dal, Gantantra Parishad against the ruling party and their number reached 32 in the house. In the same period, the second coalition was formed between the Socialist Party and the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP), then it had 28 members in the house. KMPP was founded by Acharya G B Kriplani because of his dissatisfaction with the Congress.
The third coalition was of Communist parties, in which six out of seven members of the People’s Democratic Front and more than half a dozen independent members joined. Apart from this, a fourth alliance was formed under the leadership of Jaipal Singh, in which the names of four kings, three jagirdars and a big businessman were included, apart from three members of the Jharkhand party. No group of this coalition formed within the house had 10% of the total members of the house to get the recognition of the house for the leader of the opposition.
In 1971, the National Democratic Front was formed to counter Indira Gandhi outside the House. It included Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Congress (O), Swatantra Party and Samyukta Socialist Party. It is said to be the first full alliance in the political history of independent India. In 1975, under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, the entire opposition including the Congress (O), Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Lok Dal came together in the 1977 elections and overthrew the Congress (I) from the seat of Delhi. After this, in the year 1989, Janata Dal leader VP Singh formed the National Front by taking along regional parties like Telugu Desam Party, DMK and Asom Gana Parishad. This front was supported by the BJP from outside.
This front succeeded in forming the government but soon disintegrated. In course of time Janata Dal got divided into thousand pieces, some fell here and some fell there. In the elections to the 13th Lok Sabha held in the year 1999, the BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with 16 parties. After the formation of the government under the leadership of Vajpayee ji, National Conference, Mizo National Front, Sikkim Democratic Front and some other small parties also joined this alliance. In the 2004 elections, the Congress formed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) along with the DMK and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Although the longest coalition on the basis of policy program and principle has been of the Left parties in West Bengal, but since they are now ‘neither in three nor in thirteen’, their count has become redundant, let alone discussion. In recent years, looking at the alliances formed from time to time from the center to the states, it seems that alliances are formed only to deteriorate. The irony is that while building alliances, the emphasis is on face, not on moves and character. Many times a common minimum program is also made to show it to the public, but in reality the common program is only for the distribution of power.
Remember, at the beginning of the second term of Manmohan Singh, there was a farce between the constituents regarding the creamy ministries. The recent events in Maharashtra have exposed the ugliness of coalition politics. Today, under the shadow of big parties, the status of small parties involved in the alliance has become like that of decorative processions. In the British Raj, the way in large numbers, the King Maharaja used to gather to support the British brave, more or less in the same way today small parties join due to their vested interest by compromising with the announced policy. These are the parties which forget the essence of coalition dharma even on small matters and go elsewhere. This can be understood from the example of Omprakash Rajbhar’s party Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, sometimes here and there.
However, in the last 25 years there have been two long-lived and successful coalitions at the national level. First BJP led NDA and second Congress led UPA. This is the silver jubilee year of NDA. To remove the Modi government from power, the opposition is now engaged in forming a new coalition, but the BJP’s attempt to include all kinds of parties, big and small, in the NDA camp is a clear indication that the era of coalition politics is ahead. He is going to walk unsteadily. In such a situation, it is necessary that in order to save the rapidly declining reputation of coalition politics, along with a minimum common program, a ground of solidarity should be prepared on the basis of policy and principle, so that the base of stable government and good governance is strengthened by avoiding the arbitrariness of opportunists. Are.
(The author has expressed his personal views in this article. Oneindia is not responsible for any views and information presented in the article.)