gyanunlimited Bureau, New Delhi
Coalitions have become an indispensable part of politics due to surfacing of chequered political parties in the system. But, it varies in developed and developing world. Coalition governments have been successful in the developed nations like Australia, Japan and Canada because of uniform class and similar needs and interest while in the developing countries, it is surrounded by intricacies. In the developing society, the coalition is experiencing dilemmas like political instability, crisis due to confusion of ideas, heterogeneous societies, all result in the functioning of the state to a halt.
Hung Parliament and Constitution
Indian constitutional framers never anticipated of hung parliament and politics of opportunism. In the Indian scenario, the coalition is the demand of time to break the hegemony of single party system. Due to transformation in social system, it has become tough to maintain monopoly of a single party to cater the needs of variegated social groups. It led to a new trend that is coalition.
Inception of Coalition Government
The initiation of coalition government at the center level can be trace to the parliamentary election of 1969 when the Congress Party first reduced to minority due to split of it. But now, it is deep rooted in political sphere due to mushrooming of political parties at the regional level. The ramification of these is as majority of people belonging to particular religion, castes and region. In fact, it is loss to the society as well the nation. Precious time and energy is wasted due to chaos in the House over the trifle matter. In the Nehruian times, there were consensus in all policies and agenda of the government but now, the House faces uproar more or less in all issues.
Loss from Coalition
Coalition governments both at the Center as well as the States are experiencing more loss than profit. The magnitude of loss gets amplifies when the alliances support the fragile government from outside. At the centre, the coalition groups interfered the policies of the government thus marred the direction of development. The condition becomes awkward when the Prime Minister fails to rally its own discretionary power and decisions come on the pressure of alliance wings. The nuclear deal with America hinged due to the antagonistic policies of left parties. In the coalition, every party has its own manifesto instead of single one.
Bridge Social Gap
On the other hand, the surfacing of regional parties at the national level, enable to give a picture of rural India in true sense. It bridges the social cleavage that develops due to socio-economic condition. Thus, the regional parties have come to stay in the Indian political system and their relevance can also be experienced at the centre level. The credit of federal approach in governance goes to the regional parties. Now, it seems neither the BJP nor the Congress claim hope to obtain parliamentary majority without the support of regional political formations.
Congress and BJP’s Dilemma
The Congress, which ruled India for all the first 40 years of independence, has to make good strategies to be in power at the centre. To boost the morale and strengthen the party, Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary of the Congress touring the entire country and try to sense the real problem of the people. The Congress have to make effective policies otherwise its failure can be successively harvested by the regional parties. The regional powers are also eroding the base of BJP, which came into prominence by exploiting the decay of the Congress. Even the issues like “India shining” and ‘Babri Masjid’ didn’t favour them.
Coalition government has more drawbacks than merits, danger always loom of collapsing the government due to withdrawal of support. The government of Mr. Gujral, Mr. Deve Gowda, and Mr. V.P.Singh toppled due to lack of mutual understanding and adjustment. Support from outside is the unbearable condition. Divergence emerges due to the questions of leadership and ministerial berth.
Goal of the Coalition
The Goal of the Coalition Government should be to pool the resources of different parties that can be used as unifying force. Instead of being a ‘mockery of democracy’ it should be the platform with human face. We should inculcate values from Australia and Canada that have made remarkable progress even during the phase of coalition era. Alliance rule in West Bengal is a good example of mutual understanding and cooperation of coalition politics. At last, we can say that we can say that coalition form of government is a compulsion not a persuasion.
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