CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS Parliamentary democracy in India has come of age. It has acquired maturity with the experience of past half century. It has gone through fourteen general elections in the Lok Sabha and has seen different party systems during the past several decades. India's Parliamentary democracy has shown remarkable flexibility in different kinds of political situations and has acquired a fair degree of stability, in spite of several weaknesses that have crept into the polity. In the first two decades of its independence, India witnessed a stable and strong one party rule and the evolution of a healthy parliamentary democracy, which included an interesting blend of western traditions and the native wisdom. During the rule of Nehru, though Congress dominated the entire political spectrum of India, there was a reasonable and decent competition among various political parties and all of them together promoted the democratic values of individual freedom, respect for political institutions and traditions, respect for ethics and morality in political and civil life and adherence to secularist ideas. The Nehru vian politics ardently promoted the idea of a harmonious federation in India, which alongwith the enthusiastic practice of the parliamentary system of government presented an ideal form of democracy in the developing world." The dominance of the Congress continued uninterrupted till the 4'h General Elections of 1967, when non-congress governments came to power in several states, introducing a new trend of coalition politics at the state level in India. However, ten years later this democratic 169

development occurred at the central level in India. When Janata Party formed first non-congress government under the leadership of Morarji Desai under Janata Party came into existence in January 1977. The guiding force was anti-congressism. But immediately after coming to power, the Janata government fell into a crisis because of internal dissensions. The government could not last long and it fell within two years due to irresolute ideological incompatibilities. Janata Party suffered a split and one faction led by Chaudhari Charan Singh formed the government on July 28, 1979 with the support of Congress and the left parties. But three weeks later, due to the withdrawal of support by the Congress, the government fell. After the failure of coalition experiment during 1977 to 1979, single party dominance appeared once again during 1980-1989. With the formation of national front in 1989, the process of alliance formation got a significant boost. Like Janata government. National Front once again was based on the anti-congress sentiments. This experiment in the coalition government also failed to click. The National Front government like that of the Janata Party, organized primarily the plank of anti-congressism could not sustain the personality clashes among the leader of the alliance. The government dependence upon the outside support of the BJP and Left parties and at the same time, no attempt was made to make the BJP and the Left parties responsible partners of the coalition. The 10"^ general elections held in May 1991 again resulted into hung Parliament. Congress emerged as the single largest party. It formed 170

the minority government under the leadership of P.V. Narasimha Rao. The government survived a full term with the support of some smaller parties in the Lok Sabha. It was after completion of full 5 years term of this government that multi-pary politics finally paved the way for coalition government. The elections for the 11* Lok Sabha held in April - May 1996 put a final seal on the inevitability of coalition government at the centre. The election again resulted into hung Parliament, with no party getting a clear majority to form the government. For the first time BJP emerged as a single largest party with its pre-election allies. BJP formed its first government at the centre under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But it could not muster the requisite majority and lasted only 13 day. The fall of the BJP government opened the way for the non-bjp and non-congress political parties to group together and form the government. The National Front and Left Front leaders renamed the Third Front as the United Front and formally elected Deve Gowda, the leader of the United Front parliamentary party, to head the new government. The Deve Gowda led United Front coalition government could not complete one year when Congress withdrew its support. The Congress pressurized the United Front to change its leadership. As a result l.k. Gujral was elected as the leader of United Front Congress. However, within seven months in November 1997, Congress again withdrew its support to United Front government. 171

The fall of the United Front coalition government was mainly due to its nature of formation. The post United Front was formed on the basis of negative agenda, that was to prevent the BJP from coming to power. The lack of ideological unity among the collation partners and the personality clashes, as before among the United Front leaders also created problems in the way of functioning of coalition government. The election to the 12'^ Lok Sabha were held in February 1998. BJP emerged as a largest party with its allies. By the time of these elections, BJP had learnt the inevitability of coalition politics and electoral alliance. The compulsions of coalition politics obliged the BJP to give up the controversial issues like the building of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the abolition of Article 370 of the constitution etc. The challenge before the NDA government was two fold - first to keep the allies intact and second to handle the larger Sangh Parivar which pressurized the government to persue its ideology and programme. Thus once again the coalition experiment failed to work. The elections to the 13* Lok Sabha were held in September- October 1999. At the time of these elections, BJP fully accepted the reality of coalition politics and like the previous elections, it formed prepou alliance. But this time even more systematic and a grand alliance of regional parties called NDA came into existence. For the first time since 1989, a pre-electoral alliance - NDA led by BJP crossed the majority mark to form the government at the centre. These elections clearly set a trend towards bi-polar multiparty system in which BJP and Congress 172

were the main poles, surrounded by a large number of regional parties. The formation of UFA, at the time of May, 2004 elections clearly demonstrated this trend. The BJP led NDA government was completed its full 5 year tenure. NDA government at the centre proved more stable than any other coalition government in the past (1977, 1989, 1996, 1998) at the national level. The completion of tenure by a coalition government of national and regional parties having ideological incompatibilities was itself an achievement. The NDA government, however, ended the uncertainly and instability in the Indian political system which had emerged due to the end of the one party dominance. The working of BJP led NDA government and present Congress-led UFA government clearly demonstrated that coalition politics had finally entered the phase of maturity. But the transformation of world's largest functioning democratic political system, from one party dominant system of governance to a multi-party coalitional one, has been a phenomenal development. Coalition government is a direct descendant of the exigencies of a multiparty system in a democratic set up. This has been very true of the Indian political system. The multiparty system has inevitably led to multi-cornered contests and it has seriously undermined the popular base of dominant party (Congress-I) which ruled during 1952 to 1989 with majority status but not with a majority support base. This also 173

placed a role in erosion of a single party dominant system and as a result of it, Indian multi-party system became competitive party system in the 1990s. The presence of a large number of political parties in Indian political environment always contained the possibility of the emergence of coalition government and yet it could not take place so long as the Indian National Congress continued occupjdng the Indian political space. The basis of coalition government after 1967 to 1990 was defection politics and personality cult. The coalition was formed to grab power by abandoning its ideology. The last decade of the 20'^^ century, however, witnessed the steady decline of the Congress as the dominant force in Indian politics and the subsequent emergence of several regional parties as powerful actors on the Indian political scene. The emergence of regional/ state parties has been the most striking feature of Indian politics regionalizing the polity substantially. Recent election verdicts confirmed the new political situation in which the electoral process produced not a national verdict but an aggregation of regional and local verdicts. Neither of the major parties - the BJP and the Congress - emerged from the 1989, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 elections as a majority in the Lok Sabha, nor are they likely to win a majority in the foreseeable future. These election verdicts, reflecting the obvious necessity of coalition government embracing numerous political parties emphasized the decisive importance of regional and state parties. The "coalition" became in evitable with the assertion of caste, linguistic. 174

regional and religious identities. Therefore, there is mushroom growth of political parties based up on caste, language, region and religion. Thus it led to fractured mandate. But major problem is that, when these regional and state parties get to send ministers to Delhi, all they care about are state concerns and regional issues. None of them has any vision of India or any commitment to the well being of the entire country. Thus, no matter how much the BJP hated having to do this, its government bent the administrative machinery at Jayalalitha bidding to help her with her revenue cases. Nevertheless, she still managed to bring down the first NDA government. Similarly, as deep as the Congress may be on clean governance. Dr. Manmohan Singh has no choice but to accept the so called tainted ministers because that is the price of Laloo's support. So far, at least the Congress has had the integrity to tell Mulayam to take a flying jump. But if there are defections from the UPA's ranks, then who knows? Mulayam's commercially savvy friends will become ministers at the centre. None of this can be good for India. A sour polity fractures into regional dynasties and caste based parties. All central governments have to bow to the demands of these regional dictators, their sons, their cronies and their criminal friends. When these parties get to send ministers to Delhi, all they care about their region and states not for the nation. 175

Other thing is that, the internal differences among the party leaders cause breakage of the party and the leader migrate to other parties, but their objectives remain the same. Surprisingly, these leaders, in order to get people's mandate in elections, went with bag full of promises but never bothered to fulfill anyone of them. Promises of political parties are in vain. Prior to parliamentary process, it was checked by anti-defection bill, but now-a-days, it is not being followed which cause weak and instable government. The first casuality of a coalition government is the principle of collective responsibility. The cabinet speaks in many voices. The sense of direction and unity of purpose, which is very essential for the functioning of the cabinet, get lost in a coalition government. Secondly, the coalitions in India are not based on constructive ideology but on petty and selfish interests. Thirdly, the credibility of coalition government has suffered a grievous blow as a result of murkey politics in the past few years. It has not only encouraged the politics of survival, opportunism and corruption, but also led to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness in governance. The endemic instability makes the country unable to undergo healthy experience of coalition politics and governance. The above problems are no doubt the problems encountered in operating the reality of coalition politics. But that does not mean that it 176

has no strength and benefits. Some benefits of coalition government has been given below: 1. One of the major effects of coalition politics has been that it has promoted compromise of the restraints and responsibilities, which are imposed on the ruling party by the opposition benches under the bi-party system. 2. The coalition provide the only feasible or viable alternative in a parliamentary democracy and provide a safeguard against the collapse of a democratic set up. 3. Sometime, coalition governments results in satisfying a particular party or a group. It makes democracy more participative as every small faction gets representation and heard in the legislature. 4. Coalition government also gives chance to regional parties to participate in national politics and there is less chance of one party dominance. It tends to reduce the tension of political parties. 5. Coalition system is a delicate balance of pluralistic element. 6. Federal system also tends to be more federal and real when coalition system operates at the national parties just to retain power at the centre. Our federalism today can truly be called as co-operative and bargaining federalism. 7. After coalition era there is also a general restructuring of the centre state relationship. The states have been lifted from their 177

position of excessive dependence and subordination to a larger share of power and authority. In other words, the centre state relations have become quite harmonious and healthy due to coalition system as compared to the centre-state relations during one party dominant system. Since the coalition has to be accepted as a reality in India, there is a need to have a relook into its continuation and plug the loopholes wherever possible to make it more effective and prevent the instability in government. Size of the ministry in a coalition system needs to be cut down. An effective methodology is required to make defection un attractive. Amendments need to be made in the Indian constitution to plug the loopholes in the electoral system, which are misused by the party in power. Party reforms and electoral reforms require to be initiated to make coalitions more effective. If coalition system has become the order of the governmental system in India, there is a need to provide ground rules for its operation so that stability is maintained. Our parliamentary system has to work effectively with the multiparty system and also the coalition government. Therefore the parties which join together to form the government must have a common minimum programme and all the members of the party should agree to abide by it. Major problems should be settled through consensus and agreement. Since the coalition system implies the modification of the parliamentary system to a new system, i.e., coalition system, the political 178

parties should also develop the capability of separating national issues from state issues. The coalition politics at each level has to involve all parties and all kinds of politics. In this connection, the issue that has to be settled is whether there should be a pre-electoral alliance. In the preelectoral coalition alliance, there may be understanding regarding the sharing of seats, but the post electoral alliance is only a marriage of convenience and may break off soon. Today our party system at the national level could be called as a tvi^o party dominant system in a multiparty system, since the Congress and the BJP are the reigning parties leading the allies or partners in sharing power. Those two parties need to workout means through which coalitions could remain effective and stable." Whatever solution is suggested, it is a fact that coalition in India are indicative of the pluralistic tendencies in India and Indian politics. Instead of condemning it, let us accept it as a natural process and try to strengthen it and provide for unique system which can make democracy more effective and representative. From the aforesaid discussion it may be concluded that the stability and prospect of the coalition government mainly depends on the following consuetudinary factor: 1. The coalition government is to be formed under the leadership of the first or second largest political party having greater strength in parliament than the other parties. Any deviation from this means the misinterpretation of electorate verdict. 179

2. The term of coalition should be explicit. 3. Like minded secular parties should form the coalition government with some basic policies on which there should be harmonious agreement thereby providing the foundation of the coalition government. 4. Formation of the coalition government would be able to calm the political waves and in this way, it should restore a measure of order and stability in the political environment. 5. Maintaining power equilibirmity amongst the members who joined the coalition. 6. There should not be opportunistic alliance in the coalition. 7. Coalition government should not rule for the interest of the ally parties but should rule for the interest of the country. 8. Before moving a no-confidence motion against government by any political party or any front, the same should be supported by some positive alternative for forming another government, thus avoiding further election process. This should be in the form of "positive vote of no confidence in the line as common in German constitutional system. 9. Idea proper sharing formula is to be arrived by the coalition partners on the basis of election results. 10. A steering committee may be appointed to solve the tentative difference among them after forming the coalition. 180

11. Cabinet ministers and other categories of ministers may be assigned on the basis of their party strength in the Lok Sabha. 12. The political parties must also come forward to sacrifice their minor ideological differences for the sake of the nation. 13. A coalition arrangement must be formed prior to the elections so that the partners have a common programme and a clear commitment to the voters. Alliance formed after the'election lacks accountability. 14. All coalition partners must join the government and outside support should not be considered. Those who are wiling to influence the government also share the responsibility. 15. A coalition must not be dominated by one party but it must be based on constant interactions among the members. 16. A separate committee must be established for removing the differences among the coalition partners. 17. The success of a coalition depends on the presence within it, of a central political force, mature leadership, a common goal, the restraint displayed the constituents in pursuing their own individual policies and above all the ability to be on the same wavelength with the central force. 18. The central political force must command respect and allegiance by the soundness of its political theory or by its all pervading sort 181

of political backing. It must be able to command the respect of these people who are in the coalition. 19. The policies that are adopted by the coalition government are made by the coalescing parties and merely finalized by the Chisf Minister. But in confliction coalition game, each party opposes every other party and each party seeks its own maximum ministerial advantage. Therefore, the Chief Minister's ability is much counted in the working of a coalition government. The leadership must be able to solve the differences between parties in the coalition. 20. In the ultimate analysis, the success of a coalition depends on the commitment of the coalition parties to a common minimum programme, the self-restraint on the part of the constituent parties are not trying to push their partisan interests at the expense of the common interest and above all the ability of the leader of the coalition in resolving amicably the intra party and interparty conflicts. Above all, a coalition must be formed for constructive and not for destructive purpose. A negative coalition, artificially made to keep a particular political party out of power, cannot be expected to provide enduring stable and efficient political arrangement. The experience with the previous coalition governments must be used to refrain from indulging into negative politics. Former President of India, K.R. 182

Narayanan while addressing the Parliament on March 25, 1998 clearly bore out similar expectations, when he observed, "Parliamentary arithmetic alone cannot provide the key to good governance. That key lies in the willingness of all to rise above notions of parliamentary majority and minority and work in a spirit of co-operation, conciliation and consensus." Since coalitionism has become an impressive instrument for the Indian political system in the new millennium, the following constitutional package could be tried to increase the longevity of the coalition governance: a) The practice of "outside support" must end and all partners must join the coalition government. "Outside support" means power without responsibility for any of its omissions and commissions. Firm conventions need to be built to ensure against recourse to it. For this the President of India may be required to play an active role. He could insist not only on the participation of all coalition partners in the government but also firm commitments against internal destabilization. b) Article 83 of the constitution of India be amended to ensure that the Lok Sabha is not dissolved before the completion of its 5 years tenure. In recent times, Sh. R. Venkataraman, Ex-President of Indian Republic, Sh. S. Nijalingappa, a senior old Congress leader; Sh. P.A. Sangma, Speaker of the 11 th Lok Sabha, Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Ex-Prime Minister of India and many other 183

intellectuals and constitutional experts have been strongly advocating in favour of full tenure of Lok Sabha, following the emergence of hung Parliaments. c) Members of coalition government should contest the election as a coalition, with a common election manifesto. The parties which have fought against each other during an election on an ideological basis or otherwise cannot form a violable combine afterwards and provide a credible or creditable polity. d) Only suitable persons are allowed to enter Parliament or state legislatures as representatives of the Indian people. For this, all the citizens who have a vote should take the trouble of exercising it. It is right time that India should learn to live with it and suitably amend the constitution wherever necessary, have electoral reforms and redefine national and regional political parties. Apart from that, the voters should not vote for those who are suspected of being corrupt or are tainted with criminality directly or by association. e) Coalition made up of parties with a programme with their ideologies is more durable than the one which is unprincipled or formed purely for the sake of power. Ideological homogeneity is a pre-requisite for the stability of a coalition. Thus, for the real success of a coalition government, the role of human factor is important. f) Amending the Anti-Defection Law should discourage large scale defections of the type being seen in the past few years and role of 184

the speakers of the legislatures needs redefining. The recent episodes in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa and many other states do not need any elaboration. In such a climate, "stability and longevity of governments and coherence of governance would be the natural causalities" g) The regional aspirations of the people are becoming dominant and the presence of the regional parties should not weaken the authority of the centre in the general interest of every one, while redesigning the structure and asking for more powers. The need of the time is that every regional party should be judged by its polices and programmes, out look and style of functioning in the coalition governments. If they play their role positively, there must be appreciation of their role. Otherwise, their role can be called disruptive and dangerous in terms of longevity of the coalition governance in India. While stepping into the new millennium, the Indian political system has to transform its stances from being individual focused to ideology- focused. In order to overcome the difficulty posed by hung Parliament since 1989, many intellectuals, jurists and administrators have advocated various reforms and proposals to ensure the political stability in India. But ultimately, the success of any reform certainly will depend upon the active participation of honest, competent and committed citizens in the electoral process. Indeed, the election provide a unique opportunity to the people to elect a government, which shall be responsible to them and responsive to their needs and problems. 185