The Congress, which had monopolised political power across the nation when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister, has lost its political strength and power after the emergence of regional parties and dominance of caste politics since the mid-1960s, Janata Dal(S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda said here on Sunday.
Speaking after releasing the Kannada version of The Indian Parliament: A Democracy at Work , a book co-authored by Congress leader B.L. Shankar and Valerian Rodrigues, former Professor of Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr. Gowda said Nehru laid the strong foundations for democracy in India during the dominance of the Congress party in the 1950s and early 1960s.
However, the present regime ruling the country had questioned the contributions of Nehru, he said.
“Whoever comes to power, the democratic system in the country cannot be changed,” Mr. Gowda said.
Narrating how he became a rebel Congress man and got elected to the Assembly in the early 1960s, Mr. Gowda said the emergence of regional parties contributed to the fall of the Congress in the State.
Regional parties emerged after the reorganisation of the States on a linguistic basis. Caste politics too became a dominant factor in regional politics, he said.
The successful functioning of democracy was not based on the majority in the Assemblies or Parliament. The Leader of the Opposition played a vital role in making democracy work.
The former Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs had an eye for detail and used to provide information for all questions he used to ask in the Assembly, the JD(S) leader said.
The former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah hailed the contributions of legal luminaries, including B.R. Ambedkar, in drafting the Constitution.
Noting his work as the head of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, the former Chief Justice said he had rejected the term of reference to study the suitability of the presidential form of government in the country made by the NDA government headed by A.B. Vajpayee.
Kendra Sahitya Academy Chairman and Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekar Kambar, authors Shankar and Rodrigues and S. Sadananda, professor of Kuvempu University, Shivamogga, who has translated the book in Kannada, explained the relevance of the book in contemporary politics.
The book, which has eight chapters, covers election trends and debates from the first Lok Sabha to the 16th Lok Sabha.
