Democracy, still in the making

Display of state might not a true indicator of vibrance of the Republic, says Jatin Gandhi

January 26, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:38 am IST

n January 26, the Indian state will display its might in the presence of the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Yet, to look at the ceremonial tableaux on display during the annual ritual that is performed in the heart of Delhi and assess how far we have come together as a democratic Republic would be partially incorrect and perhaps, even delusional.

The depth and spread of democracy in the last 65 years is a better measure of the performance of the state.

“The deepening of democracy project has not expanded,” said Bhagwan Josh, Professor of Contemporary History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. “The democratic momentum under Nehru that lasted from 1951 to 1962 is missing today,” he added.

As we enter the 66th year of the Republic, the new government in place has completed eight months at the helm. Even though it is a coalition government, the 2014 Lok Sabha results show that the leading party – the Bharatiya Janata Party – was capable of forming a government on its own. Yet, the functioning of Parliament during the current government’s tenure shows it has not been able to leverage its numbers in the Lok Sabha to build consensus in the Rajya Sabha.

A party crossing the half way mark in the Lok Sabha is a scenario that visited us after 30 years – after an era of stable and unstable coalition governments that lasted from 1991 to 2009.

The five-phase election to the 16th Lok Sabha lin April-May last year saw the BJP finish with a little under 31 per cent of the total votes polled, yet post a mammoth score of 282 of the total 543 seats.

It was the first non-Congress party to cross the majority mark on its own. The Congress recorded its worst performance, with 44 seats, finishing second and polling 19.3 per cent votes. The next six slots, in terms of seat share, were taken by regional parties – the AIADMK with 37 seats, the AITMC with 34 seats together polled a little over seven per cent of the votes.

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