Emerging Political Trends 1977 to 2000 - Sakshi Education · 2016-03-18 · Tamil Nadu and West...

Social Studies264 Independent India - Part II

End of Emergency and formation of Janata Party governments under MorarjiDesai and Charan Singh

Formation of Congress government led by Indira Gandhi

Formation of TDP

Operation Blue Star and Assassination of Indira Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi Accords with HS Longowal on Punjab and AASU on Assam

Accord with Mizo National Front

Agreement with Sri Lanka

Election and formation of Janata Dal government with VP Singh and Chandrasekhar

Decision to implement Mandal Commission recommendation

Ram Janmabhoomi Rath Yatra

Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and government led by Congress partywith P.V.Narsimha Rao as PM

Economic Liberalisation

Demolition of Babri Masjid

National Front Government with Deve Gowda and IK Gujral as PMs

NDA government led by AB Vajpayee

In this chapter we will look more closely at political events in contemporaryIndia. Many of these events and issues have sharply divided and even polarised thepolitical landscape of this country. We will see the transformation of the partysystem with the emergence of a competitive multi-party system. As a result of thischange in the party system, no single party was able to form a government on itsown and we have a series of coalition governments. In the economic sphere, thisperiod brings about a major shift in the development strategy. The tension betweenthe economics of market and the politics of democracy begins to play itself outduring this period. At the same time, old issues of religious and caste differencesare repackaged and used for political mobilisation. This chapter will examine theseissues of the contemporary period with reference to their impact on the fundamentalvalues of constitution likedemo-cracy, unity andintegrity and social andeconomic change.

Both teachers andstudents are sure to havetheir own views on theevents of this perioddepending upon their ownConvictions, but it issuggested that everyoneshould try to understandthe perspective of otherswith an open mind andalso express their ownviews with care not tooffend other people. Thedevelopments discussedin this chapter haveimportant bearing on the

CHAPTER

19CHAPTER

19 Emerging Political Trends 1977 to 2000

Write a brief summary of political events discussed about in the previous chapteron Independent India.

Free distribution by A.P. Government 265

nature and future of our democratic institutions and we should try to understandtheir various dimensions. The maturity of our democracy depends upon how weconduct these discussions.

Return of democracy after EmergencyThe period between 1975 to 1985 was a testing time for Indian democracy. It

began with the state of Emergency in which basic democratic rights were deniedand ended with the historic electoral victory of the Congress led by Rajiv Gandhi.Though it began and ended with the rule of the Congress party it saw the emergenceof viable alternatives to the Congress at both the Centre and in the States. Thiseffectively prevented India from sliding into a ‘single party democracy’ as ithappened in many countries. The emergence of competitive alternatives ensuredthat Indian voters could always exercise a reasonable choice. This also allowedmany different political viewpoints and sectional interests to become active inState level and national politics. Political viewpoints of Socialists, Hindunationalists, Communists, as well as sectional interests like those of farmers, dalits,backward castes, and regions among others now came to the fore and assertedtheir claims. At the same time anumber of non-political movementslike environmental movements,feminist movement, civil libertiesmovement, literacy movements andso on also emerged and becamepowerful motors of social change.Let us examine some of these issuesin greater detail.

1977 Elections and the End of EmergencyWhen elections were announced in January 1977, it took everyone by surprise.

No one had expected elections to be held. Indira Gandhi also released all politicalprisoners, removed censorship as well as all other regulations in place whichrestricted freedom of movement, campaigns and meetings. The major oppositionparties decided to come together to challenge the Congress. The Congress (O),Swatantra Party, Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the Bharatiya Lok Dal and the Socialist partydecided to merge together and form the Janata (peoples) Party. Some importantCongress leaders like Jagjivan Ram quit the party to join the anti-Congress front.The other major opposition parties like the DMK, the SAD and the CPI (M) choseto maintain their separate identities but supported the Janata Party in a commonfront against the Congress. Senior leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan and AcharyaJB Kriplani played an important role in bringing together all the anti-Congress andanti-Emergency parties to fight the elections. It should be noted that some of theseparties had diametrically opposite viewpoints on social and political issues.

Do you think ‘single partydemocracy’ would have been a betteralternative to multi-party democracy?In what ways does a multi-partydemocracy create favourableconditions for social movements ofprotest and change?


Some opposition parties of 1970s

BLD – Bharatiya Lok Dal – a party which wasformed of socialists who called for special attentionto Indian farmers, based mainly in Uttar Pradesh.

Congress (O) – The conservative section of theCongress which had opposed the policies of IndiraGandhi.

CPI (M) – Communist Party of India (Marxist) –a party with a national presence, which strove forradical land reforms, trade unionism and socialistpolicies.

DMK – Dravida Munnetra Kazagam – a partybased mainly in Tamil Nadu which sought greaterautonomy and powers for the state.

Jan Sangh – A Hindu nationalist party largelyconfined to the northern States.

SAD – Shiromani Akali Dal – a party based inPunjab catering specially to the Sikhs and organisedaround Gurudwaras. It therefore had a semireligious character. It was also in favour of greaterautonomy to the States.

It was a historic election for Indian democracy.The Congress party was defeated at the national levelfor the first time. During this period Mr. NeelamSanjeeva Reddy was unanimously elected as speakerof the 6th Lok Sabha on 26th March, 1977. Later, hewas elected unopposed, the only President of Indiato be elected being unanimously supported by allpolitical parties including the opposition Congressparty and sworn as the 6th President of India on 25th

July, 1977. This shows how the coalitiongovernments have come to stay and political partiesstarted thinking in terms of coalitions setting a newtrend in political history. This is in a sense ofushered in the practice of accepting personalitiesof great statesmanship and who set high standardsin public life, being preferred for public offices andcertainly a move away from traditional party basedpolitics. During his term of office, Mr. SanjeevaReddy had to work with threegovernments under PrimeMinisters Morarji Desai, CharanSingh and Indira Gandhi.

The victorious Janata Partyattempted to consolidate itself bydismissing nine Congressgovernments in the States. Was thecentral government justified indismissing State governments evenif they enjoyed majority in theirassemblies just because the partyruling in those States had beendefeated in the Parliamentaryelections? The Janata Party arguedthat the Congress party had lost itsmandate to rule in the States as ithad been defeated. Its stand wassomewhat vindicated by its victoryin Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Bihar and the victoryof CPI (M) in West Bengal andDMK in Tamil Nadu.

Fig 19.1 : Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy6th President of India


The Janata Party had come to power promising arestoration of democracy and freedom from authoritarianrule. However, the disunity among the partners had a seriouseffect on the governance and its rule is most oftenremembered for internal squabbles and defections. Thefactional struggle in the party soon culminated in the fall ofthe government within three years leading to fresh electionsin 1980.

The Congress returned to power in 1980. The Congressimmediately paid back the Janata in the same coin bydismissing the Janata and non-Congress governments in nineStates. The Congress was victorious in all the States exceptTamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The actions of both the Janata Party and Congressgovernments weakened the federal principles and backed a

more centralising position. This wasaccompanied by some seriouschallenges to national unity too. Thepeople of many states felt alienated andwanted either greater autonomy fromthe centre or even wanted to go separatefrom India itself. The non-congressregional parties (like SAD and DMK )meanwhile attempted to come togetherto form a common front in support ofgreater say in national level decisionmaking, greater financial autonomy,lower interference in State matters andstopping the misuse of the powers ofthe Governor and arbitrary impositionof President’s Rule.

Emergence of RegionalAspirations

Let us look at three movements forgreater autonomy in different parts of

India: Andhra Pradesh, Assamand Punjab. Can you identify thesimilarities and dissimilaritiesbetween these movements? Theyrepresented three strands of thedemands for autonomy.

President’s RuleAs per the provision of the Constitution

(article 356), the governor of a State canrecommend to the President the dismissal of aState government and even dissolution of aState assembly if he or she is convinced that thegovernment is not able to administer the Stateas per the Constitution. The President may thenon the advice of the Prime Minister, dismiss theState government and order the Governor totake over the administration of the State.

Since there was no clear guideline in theConstitution in this regard, many centralgovernments often misused article 356 to harassand dismiss State governments headed byopposition parties.

In 1994 in an important judgement theSupreme Court laid down strict norms for theuse of article 356 by the Central Government.Since then, such misuse of this power hasbecome rare.

Fig 19.1 : Morarji Desaithe First Non Congress

Prime Minister

There have been many instances in whichgovernments at centre removed governments at thestate, if they are from different political parties.Discuss how does it violate democratic principles.


Discuss the importance of the followingfactors in the politics of NTR:

i. Background of being a film heroii. Fight for self respect of the stateiii. Popular welfare schemes for the pooriv. Alliance with other regional parties

Andhra PradeshIn Andhra Pradesh, the frequent change of Chief

Ministers by the central Congress leadership andthe imposition of leaders from above created a badtaste. There was a feeling that the Andhra Pradeshleadership was not getting respect from the nationalCongress leadership. This was perceived as an insultto the pride of the Telugu people. N T Rama Rao(NTR), popular film actor, chose to take up thiscause. He began the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) onhis 60th birthday in 1982. He said that the TDPstood for the honour and self respect of the Teluguspeaking people (Teluguvari atma gauravam). Heargued that the State could not be treated as a loweroffice of the Congress party. Equally importantwere his promise of some very important welfare measures for the poor includingmidday meal scheme in government schools, sale of rice at Rs 2 per Kg to thepoor and liquor prohibition. These populist measures helped the TDP sweep the1982 elections. However, he was surreptitiously dismissed by the Governor in1984 when he was away in the United States for a surgery. The Governor appointedN Bhaskar Rao who had defected from the TDP to the Congress. On his returnNTR challenged the action of the Governor and proved that he had the support ofmajority of the MLAs. After a month of campaigning the central governmentappointed a new Governor whoreappointed NTR as the Chief Minister ofAndhra Pradesh. In this struggle againstarbitrary dismissal, NTR was supported byseveral parties holding power in Stateslike CPI M, DMK, SAD and NationalConference among others.

Assom MovementA similar but much stronger demand for autonomy was also taking place in

Assom. In Assam, besides Assamese, Bengali was also a major spoken language.From the British time, Bengalis occupied the lower and middle rungs of theadministration in the State. The Assamese speaking people felt that the Bengaliofficialdom did not treat them as equals but as second-class citizens. A lot of Bengalispeaking people had also settled in Assom after independence and to make mattersworse there was also a lot of migration from across the border from Bangladesh.Whenever there was any political instability or natural calamity in the neighbouringcountry, thousands of people moved into the State creating huge discomfort for

Fig 19.2 : N T Rama Rao


the locals. The local people felt that they would lose their cultural roots and soonbe outnumbered by the ‘outsiders’.

In the late 1970s this general feeling of unhappiness was transformed into asocial movement. The All Assom Students Union (AASU) was at the forefront ofthe agitation. This organisation spread across the State and was especially popularamong the youth. It led a number of strikes, agitations and marches directed againstthe central government to make clear its demands -mainly to remove the so-calledoutsiders.

Besides culture and demographics, there was also an economic dimension.Trade and other establishments were in the hands of non-Assamese communities.The major resources of the State, including tea and oil were again not benefittingthe locals. The tea industry was mainly based in Calcutta and the oil industry hadvery few locals involved despite being in the hands of the public-sector. Furthermore,the oil was being moved out of the State and refined elsewhere. All in all, thedominant thrust of the movement was that Assam was being treated as an “internalcolony” and this had to stop. The main demands were that the local people shouldbe given greater preference in employment, the “outsiders” should be removed andthe resources should be used for the benefit of the locals.

These demands however created a communal polarisation as most of theoutsiders who came from the neighbouring country were Muslims. To make mattersworse, the movement soon began to take anti-Bengali, anti-Left (as West Bengalwas being ruled by the Left Front), anti-non-Assamese and gradually even an anti-Indian stand. The central government was soon forced to take note of the movementas the violence and disruption increased. The talks between the agitationists andthe central government went on for three years before they came to an agreement.An agreement was signed by the Central Govt and the AASU at the initiative ofPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1984.To restore normalcy, in an unusuallymagnanimous move the Congress government in the State stepped down and allowedelections even before the end of its term. When elections were held the AssomGana Parishad (AGP - an offshoot of AASU) came to power.

This political transition however, did not resolve the long term problems whichgave rise to the movement. The border with Bangladesh could not be sealed due toboth diplomatic reasons and also geographic reasons (given the waterways and hillsit is not possible to erect fences everywhere). It was also not possible to reallydifferentiate between old Bengali settlers and fresh immigrants or send back theimmigrants. At the same time too much emphasis on ethnic identities had a negativeimpact on other communities of Assom like the Bodos, Khasis, Mizos and Karbis.Many of them too demanded autonomous status. They began to assert themselvesand wanted to drive out people of other communities from their areas. This has ledto violent attempts of ‘ethnic cleansing’ or forcible eviction of minority tribalcommunities by even outright mass killing in many parts of Assom. Often in order


In what ways do you think the Assom movement is similar or different from themovement of NTR in Andhra Pradesh?Organise a debate in your class on the following themes:Only one community should live in a region and all posts and trade-business shouldbe in the hands of the people of that specific community only. OR All people ofIndia should be free to move from one part to another and settle and work inplaces of their choice.Will an open policy of free movement of people cause rich and powerful outsidersto buy up all land and resources and leave the original people of a locality poorand impoverished?

to counter violent activities of one community the governments instigated or armedanother community and in this way kept alive the tensions instead of solving them.

The Central Government also stepped up the deployment of armed forces inthese areas to reduce tension and bring peace. Three factors influenced the use ofarmed forces in the North Eastern region: firstly, the fact that it was a sensitiveborder area adjacent to China, Burma (now Myanmar) and Bangladesh; secondly,the rebel groups often were demanding separation from India and procured armsand help from outside forces; and thirdly, the fact that the rebel groups indulged inlarge-scale ethnic violence against minority communities. As the Indian armedforces entered this difficult terrain, it led to suspension of civil liberties and freedomand also to giving abnormal powers to the army. The government thought that thiswas the only way to bring about peace in the area.

Thus what started as a problem between Bengalis and Assamese developed intoa complex inter-community conflict in a very sensitive area. The problem of ethnicidentities and ethnic assertion therefore requires a broadminded approach ratherthan narrow minded and quick solutions.

The Punjab AgitationAt the other end of India, another movement for autonomy was taking shape in

the State of Punjab. Here too the difference in language and religion of the dominantpopulation became a point of mobilisation. Here again the grouse was that thecontribution of the State was being ignored. They also believed that the State hadreceived an unfair bargain when it was created. It laid claims to the new capital cityof Chandigarh which remained a union territory directly administered by the Centre.Punjab also claimed more water from Bhakra Nangal dam and greater recruitmentof Sikhs in the army.

The Akali Dal had passed a set of resolutions in 1978 during the Janata Partyrule in the centre, calling upon the central government to implement them. Its


most significant demand was to amend the Constitution to give more powers to thestates and ensure greater decentralisation of powers. The resolution said,

“the Shiromani Akali Dal emphatically urges upon the Janata Governmentto take cognizance of the different linguistic and cultural sections, religiousminorities as also the voice of millions of people and recast the Constitutionalstructure of the country on real and meaningful federal principles to obviatethe possibility of any danger to the unity and integrity of the country and, further,to enable the States to play a useful role for the progress and prosperity of theIndian people in their respective areas by a meaningful exercise of their powers.”

With the increasing electoral competition between the SAD and the Congress,things took a turn for the worse. The dismissal of the Akali government and thereturn of the Congress in 1980 only added to already surcharged atmosphere andthe feeling that the Sikhs were being discriminated against. A series of untowardincidents followed, increasing the alienation/ distance between the Sikhs and thecentral government. Bhindranwale, the leader of the group of militant Sikhs beganto preach separatism and also demanded the formation of a Sikh State- Khalistan.This was a period of intense turmoil in the State. The militants tried to impose anorthodox life code on all Sikhs and even non-sikhs of Punjab. There was also acommunal colour to the conflict. People belonging to non-Sikh communities weresubjected to communal attacks. All this finally culminated in the occupation of theGolden Temple by the Sikh separatist groups and the army had to intervene to vacate

Fig 19.3 : during the 1970’s and 1980’s India made many different achivements inTechnology co-operative’s etc., some examples are like in above Sriharikota launch of PSLV,

Amul cooperative etc.,


What was the role of anti-sikh riots ofDelhi in 1984 in fuelling Sikhseparatism and extremism?Compare the similarities anddifferences between Assam and Punjabmovements. What kind of challengesdid they pose to our political system?The way the government handled thetwo problems, did it strengthen ourdemocratic polity or weaken it?

the premises. This was seen as an act of desecration of the holiest shrine of theSikhs and increased their alienation.

A fallout of all this was the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in1984. This was followed by rioting especially in Delhi in which thousands of Sikhswere attacked, murdered and their properties destroyed. The administration seemedto do little to stop the violence.

After Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister, he held talks with SAD andentered into an agreement with Sant Langowal, the SAD president. Though freshelections were held in Punjab and SAD won them, the peace was short lived asLongowal was assassinated by the militants.

In April 1986, an assembly at the Akal Takht, made a declaration of anindependent state of Khalistan. Several groups claiming to be fighters for anindependent state formed armed detachments and engaged in terrorist activities.The government of India claimed that these groups were actively supported by thegovernment of Pakistan. This was a decade of violence and conflict in Punjab. Theperiod of insurgency saw clashes of the Sikh militants with the police, as well aswith other religious groups. Journalists, politicians, artists and activists who didnot conform to militant-approved behaviour were killed. There were indiscriminateattacks designed to cause extensive civilian casualties: derailing trains, explodingbombs in markets, restaurants, and other civilian areas between Delhi and Punjab.In 1991 alone about a thousand people were killed. The militants were also engagedin large scale kidnapping and extortion to raise funds for their work. All this graduallyalienated them from the mass of the Punjabi people including Sikhs. Over a periodof time effective police action broke the back of militancy and as public sympathydeclined rapidly, peace finally returned to Punjab by the end of the 1990s.

However, the G overnment used very harsh methods for the suppression ofmilitancy in Punjab, many of which were seen as violation of Constitutional rightsof citizens. Many observers felt that suchviolations of Constitutional rights andhuman rights were justified as theConstitutional machinery was on the edgeof collapse due to militant activity. Evenjudges were afraid of passing adversejudgements on the militants for fear ofreprisals by them. Other observers felt thatsuch use of extra constitutional powers bythe state cannot be justified and in the longrun it would strengthen undemocratictendencies in the polity.


New initiatives in the Rajiv Gandhi EraThe Congress led by Rajiv Gandhi won

an unprecedented victory in the elections.Rajiv Gandhi began a peace initiative inPunjab, Assam and Mizoram and also in theneighbouring country of Sri Lanka. Indiasent its army to maintain peace between thewarring parties (Separatist Tamils andSinhalese government), but this turned outto be a misadventure as it was not acceptedby either the Tamils or the Sri Lankangovernment and the force was finally

withdrawn in 1989.Rajiv Gandhi realised that despite all

the attention to development in thecountry, much of it did not reach the realbeneficiaries. In a famous speech RajivGandhi said that out of every Rupee spenton the poor barely 15 paise reaches them!It highlighted the fact that despite hugeincreases in development expenditure,

the story of the poor remained the same.The fact that most people who had beenpoor and marginalised including,women, dalits and tribals were notgetting access to the fruits ofdevelopment. He also realised that thereneeded to be sea change in the way thingswere being done. Rajiv Gandhi felt thatthe best way to do this was to ensure theparticipation of the mass of the peoplein governance by activating thePanchayati Raj Institutions. However,many State governments, especially,

Fig 19.4 : Rajiv Gandhi

Fig 19.5 : Operators at work in the New DelhiTelephone Exchange - c1950's

Looking back from the present,what do you think were the lastingcontributions of Rajiv Gandhi tothe country?Discuss in your class why thepoorest people often do not getto benefit from schemes intendedfor them. What long term stepsshould be taken to ensure that suchbenefits really reach the poor?Find out and list all the benefitsstudents of your school areentitled to. Do they manage to getthem properly? Discuss in boththe class and outside the schoolin your homes or playground.


those run by opposition parties felt that it was an attempt to by pass them andreduce their powers.

In the economic sphere, too Rajiv Gandhi attempted to chart a different course.His government’s first budget in 1985 moved towards a more liberalised systemby removing some of the checks and controls that were in place.

Rajiv Gandhi was also convinced that India needed to adapt itself to the newtechnologies emerging in the world, especially computer and telecommunicationtechnologies. He initiated what is called the ‘telecom revolution’ in India whichspeeded up and spread the network of telephonic communication in the countryusing satellite technology.

Rise of Communalism and Corruption in High placesAfter the horrors of partition there had been some attempt to keep religion

away from the active and formal political sphere.This period however saw theemergence of new kind of political mobilisation which had communal overtones.This use of religion for political purposes and the partisan role of the governmentwas to lead to disastrous consequences which would raise question marks on theissue of national unity and integrity.

In 1985 the Supreme Court passed a judgement on a case filed by Shah Banowho had been divorced by her husband ordering that she should be paid maintenanceby her ex-husband. While the progressive Muslims welcomed the decision, others

The Prime Minister’s Apology

Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement in the Rajya Sabha... Four thousand people were killed in this great national tragedy that took place

in 1984. This should be an occasion for introspection, how working together as aunited nation, we can find new pathways to ensure that such ghastly tragedies neveragain take place in our country. ... I have no hesitation in apologising not only to theSikh community but the whole Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is thenegation of the concept of nationhood and what is enshrined in our Constitution. So,I am not standing on any false prestige. On behalf of our Government, on behalf ofthe entire people of this country, I bow my head in shame that such a thing tookplace. But, Sir, there are ebbs, there are tides in the affairs of nations. The past is withus. We cannot rewrite the past. But as human beings, we have the willpower and wehave the ability to write better future for all of us.... (pmindia.nic.in/RS%20speech.pdf)11 Aug 2005.

What is the most important message in this speech?What signals does this speech send out?Why is it important that the Prime Minister made this speech?


protested against this judgement saying that it went against Islamic law and that ifthis was allowed then there may be further interference in the religious life of thecommunity. The leaders of women’s movement and those who stood for reformwithin the Muslim society argued that it would help to reverse the gross injusticebeing meted out to Muslim women who were divorced unilaterally by their husbands.The government came under pressure of the orthodox sections and enacted a newlaw in 1986 which let off Muslim husbands and permitted Muslim religious bodiesto pay maintenance to divorced women for a short period of 3 months. This waswidely seen as compromising before religious orthodoxy and ignoring the interestsof women of the community.

Around the same time some sections of the Hindus had begun a campaign forbuilding a temple for Lord Rama in Ayodhya in the place of the controversialconstruction, Babri Masjid. They claimed that it was the birth place of Lord Ramaand it has been built by destroying the earlier temple. The custodians of BabriMasjid denied this and claimed this was a place of worship for Muslims. This hadbeen under dispute for some time and the Court had ordered it be kept closedexcept on one day in a year till the final decision was taken. In 1986 the Courtordered that the mosque may be kept open on all days and allow Hindus to performworship on a daily basis. It was widely believed that this could happen only becausethe central government approved of this decision. This opening up of the templehelped those who wanted to convert the mosque into a temple to mobilise a largenumber of people.

To many observers it appeared that the established political parties were losingpopularity among the people. Large number of popular movements were emergingover a number of issues under non-political leaderships. The large farmers producingfor market were fighting for better prices for agricultural products and greatersubsidy for inputs like diesel, fertilisers and electricity. Farmers of UP and Haryanaagitated under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Tikait, while farmers ofMaharashtra were fighting under the leadership of Sharad Joshi. In many Statesmovements of adivasis and farmers against displacement by development projectslike dams and mines was also building up. The observers felt that this decline inpopularity led the national political parties to pander to religious feelings in bothHindu and Muslim communities so as to retain their support in elections. However,it weakened the secular fabric of Indian polity and made way for rise of communalpolitics in the following decade.

Around the same time charges began to be levied against several leaders thatthey had directly or indirectly received bribes from the Swedish manufacturers ofguns being supplied to the Indian army. Even though these charges could never beproved clearly, a powerful campaign was led by some former ministers of cabinetitself like V P Singh. The issue of corruption in administration and in politicalcircles became the main plank of the election campaign for non-congress political


While some people feelthat coalition politics hasweakened the government,others feel that it hasprevented any party fromsteamrolling its agenda onthe country. Discuss thiswith examples.

Fig 19.6 : VP. Singh

forces in the next elections held in 1989. Once the non-congress parties irrespectiveof their differences amongst themselves got together, it became difficult for theCongress to win. Though the Congress returned with the highest number of seats,it did not have enough to form a government on its own. The first coalitiongovernment led by V P Singh’s Janata Dal was formed.

The Era of Coalition politicsThe 1990s were years of very significant change in post

Independence India. With the transformation to a competitivemulti-party system, it became near impossible for any singleparty to win a majority of the seats and form a government ofits own. Since 1989, all governments that had formed at thenational level have been either coaliton or minoritygovernments. A number of national and regional parties hadto come together to form governments at the centre. Thismeant that the political ideologies and programmes of anumber of parties had to be accommodated and a commonagreement had to be arrived at. Thus no party could pursue itsextreme agendas and had to tone down their approaches. Whilethis enabled the central government to become more sensitiveto multiple viewpoints in politics and policy matters, it also caused considerableinstability. Even small parties tried to gain undue advantage as the withdrawal oftheir support could cause the fall of the government. Sometime this also caused‘policy paralysis’ – as the coalition could not implement any policy which calledfor serious change for fear of withdrawal of support by one or the other partners.

While the early coalition governments werehighly instable and did not last their full terms, thelater coalitions have put in place multiple mechanismslike common minimum programmes andcoordination committees to bring about greaterunderstanding between the partners. Later coalitionslike the BJP led National Democratic Alliance andthe Congress led United Progressive Alliance havecompleted their terms. Moreover, the UPA was thefirst coalition to be re-elected.

The ‘Left Front Government’ in West BengalThe Left wing political parties like the Communist Party of India (CPI), Forward

Block, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM)won the elections in the State of West Bengal in 1977 and formed the Left FrontGovernment led by Jyoti Basu of CPM. One of its most important programmeswas to carry out the unfinished tasks of land reforms in the State. In June 1978, the


West Bengal government launched Operation Barga to record the names of thesharecroppers (Bargadars who tilled the land belonging to landlords and paid alarge share of the produce as rent to them), who formed a major part of the agrarianpopulation in West Bengal and to secure their rights. Operation Barga dependedheavily on collective action by the sharecroppers and panchayati raj institutionsthus avoiding bureaucratic delays and domination of the landowning classes.Officials held camps in the villages in which the various stakeholders would meetand discuss their issues. A list of claimants would be drawn up immediately after,and publicly verified in the presence of the landholders, who could then recordtheir objections. Then, the names of the bargadars would be recorded on the spot,and all legal documents would be issued and distributed immediately.

As a result of Operation Barga, the landlords were largely prevented fromforcibly throwing the bargadars off the land. In fact, the bargadar rights were madehereditary and thus perpetual. Secondly, the State guaranteed that the bargadarswould receive a fair share of the crop (75 per cent if the bargadar provided the non-labour inputs and 50 per cent if the landlord provides those inputs). In all,approximately half of rural households in West Bengal have received land reformbenefits.

As a result of these measures agricultural production in West Bengal increasedalmost by 30% and rural poverty declinedsignificantly. However, many critics felt thatstill the majority of shareholders of WestBengal (about 70%) have not beenregistered and this partial implementationhas led to the rise of a new class of ruralrich.

Nevertheless Operation Barga and theimplementation of Panchayati Raj helped

the Left Front to gain substantial support of the rural population and the governmentrepeatedly won elections till 2006. This is one of the ways in which the needs ofthe people of the State was addressed through democratic means.

Compare the land reforms in WestBengal and the land reforms inVietnam or China. In what ways werethey similar or different?Why do you think the protection ofsharecroppers led to an increase inproduction?

NationalFront

1989-1990

Governing Parties Governing Parties Governing Parties

JD; DMK; AGP; TDP ; Jammu &Kashmir National Conference(JKNC)

CPM; CPI, BJP

Supporting Parties Supporting Parties Supporting Parties

UnitedFront

1996-1998

NationalDemocratic

Alliance1998-2004

JKNC ; TDP; TMC; CPI; AGP;DMK; MGP; Samajwadi Party

JDU; SAD; AIADMK, JKNC; TrinamoolCongress; Biju Janata Dal ; ShivaSena ;

CPM TDP

This is not a complete list of political parties that either supported for were part of the government. Often we have listed only those parties

that had more 5 or MPs

Coalition Governments and some political parties from 1980’s


Panchayati Raj & 73rd amendment

In 1992 government led by P.V. NarasimhaRao passed an important amendment to theConstitution to provide local self governmentsa Constitutional Status. The 73rd ConstitutionalAmendment created institutions of local selfgovernment at the village level while the 74thConstitutional Amendment did the same intowns and cities. These were pathbreakingamendments. They sought to usher in for thefirst time, office bearers at the local level electedon the basis of universal adult franchise. Onethird of the seats were to be reserved forwomen. Seats were also reserved for scheduledcastes and tribes. The concerns of the Stategovernments were taken into account and itwas left to the States to decide on whatfunctions and powers were to be devolved totheir respective local self governments.Consequently, the powers of local selfgovernments vary across the country.

Political concerns in the last decade of 20th centuryThis shift in politics was accompanied by some other significant developments.

On the one hand India was forced to open up and ‘liberalise’ its economy by allowingfreer flow of foreign capital and goods into India; on the other hand new socialgroups asserted themselves politically for the first time; and finally religiousnationalism and communal political mobilisation became important features ofour political life. All this put the Indian society into great turmoil. We are stillcoming to grips with these changes and adapt ourselves to them.

Extention of Constitutional PrivilegesThe Janata Dal, focussed on the need for inclusive development and ensuring

opportunities for people from backward communities. The National Frontgovernment resurrected the Mandal Commission report which had recommendedreservations for other backward castes (OBC) in government employment andeducational facilities. The V P Singh government announced that it was implementingthe core recommendation of the Commission by reserving 27% of the seats ingovernment employment for candidates from the socially and educationallybackward castes that were identified by the Commission. This order sparkednumerous protests especially in northIndia. In the south, most States alreadyhad a high proportion of the seatsreserved for the OBCs. Most of theother political parties were not infavour of this decision of V P Singhgovernment, but did not want to opposeit as they feared that they will becomeunpopular. This was because during theprevious two decades, many of theOBC castes had become rich andasserted themselves. They hadespecially benefitted from landreforms and green revolution, butfound that they did not have adequaterepresentation in education,government service and even inpolitics. They now began to demandtheir share in these spheres. The V PSingh government tried to address thisdemand by implementing the MandalCommission recommendations. Thusgradually all political parties came to


accept the assertion of the OBCs in Indian politics. This process also meant thatIndian polity in general became more sensitive to caste issues and especially theproblems faced by the lower castes. Many parties like the Bahujan Samaj Partyclaiming to represent the interests of the dalits and many regional parties whichrepresented emergent castes like the Yadavs and Jats became important in Indianpolitics.

Use of religion and politicsThe political tendency that seeks to build our nation based on religious identity

of the majority of the population, i.e. the Hindus is led by Bharatiya Janata Party.This party believes that ideas of democracy and secularism are western ideas andare not sufficient and what is needed is to draw upon ancient Indian culture. TheBJP however opposes the idea of a religious priesthood run theocratic state. TheBJP has opened the debate on the nature of secularism by asserting that a secularstate; not to give special treatment to minorities, but common civil code is to beapplicable to all.

This tendency was largely on the margins of Indian politics till the 1980s. Forexample in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections they won only 2 seats. However, BJPmade great strides when it took up the Ayodhya issue – it decided to campaign forthe building of a temple at the site of mosque claiming that it was the site of birthof Lord Rama. In 1990 L K Advani, the leader of BJP led a “Rath Yatra” fromSomnath to Ayodhya in support of these demands. During the campaign the BJPtried to argue that the secular politics was trying to ignore the interests of theHindu majority while appeasing minority communities, especially the Muslims.This campaign was accompanied by intense communal polarisation causing a largenumber of communal conflicts and finally ended with the arrest of L K Advani inBihar. The BJP responded to this arrest by withdrawing support to V P Singhgovernment and forcing early elections.

During this election campaign, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE, a Tamilseparatist group of Sri Lanka as retaliation for his role in sending Indian army toSri Lanka. In the sympathy wave that followed the Congress came to power in theCentre, but the BJP’s strength had gone up to 120 in the Lok Sabha. In 1992, a largecrowd mobilised on behalf of the temple campaign gathered in Ayodhya anddestroyed the mosque. This event sparked off widespread protests and alsocommunal riots in which hundreds of people were killed.

Economic liberalisationIn 1991, when the V P Singh government fell, India was facing very serious

economic crises. Its reserve of foreign currency with which it repaid its loans andpaid for imports, had been virtually exhausted. This meant that India would have todefault in payments to foreign countries unless it urgently got some loan. In 1992,


when the new Congress government under P V Narasimha Raowas formed it negotiated with the International Monetary Fundfor loans to tide over the crises. The IMF laid down certainstringent conditions (called ‘structural adjustmentprogramme’), forcing India to accept a policy of liberalisation.This meant

a. drastic reduction of government expenditure –including cuts in subsidies to farmers, expenditure onpublic services, health, etc.

b. reducing restrictions and taxes on import of foreigngoods

c. reducing restrictions on foreign investments in Indiad. opening of many sectors of the economy (like telephone, banking, airlines,

etc) to private investors (these were government monopolies earlier)These measures brought in foreign goods and forced Indian business to compete

with global manufacturers. It also led to the setting up of industries and business byforeign companies in India. However, it also meant a lot of hardship for the commonpeople as the government was forced to cut subsidies to the people and as manyfactories closed down due to influx of cheap foreign goods. This also led toprivatisation of many public amenities like education, health, and transport andpeople had to pay high prices to private service providers.

The twentieth century closed with an India which was drawn into the worldmarket, an India which seemed to have a thriving democracy in which voices ofdifferent sections of the population were making themselves heard and in whichdivisive and communal politicalmobilisation were threatening todestroy social peace. It had stood the testof time for over fifty years and had builta relatively stable economy and deeplyrooted democratic politics. It still hadnot managed to solve the problem ofacute poverty and gross inequalitybetween castes, communities, regionsand gender. This was the legacy which50 years of post-independence periodleft for the 21st century India.

ConclusionWe have seen that Indian democracy has been able to withstand numerous

challenges and in the process strengthen itself. Indian democracy would be calledsuccessful on many indicators, including free, fair and regular elections, voter

Fig 19.7 : P.V. Narasimha Rao

Fig 19.8 : H. D.Deve Gowda

Fig 19.9 : A.B.Vajpayee


turnouts, and government turnovers, empowerment of new groups and maintenance ofessential civil liberties. Yet by the turn of the century, there were also many questionsbeing asked of India’s democracy. Despite being a continuous democracy, why hasn’t Indiabeen able to take care of the well being of large number of its citizens? How would Indiatackle the increased tensions between the contradictory demands and tensions of thedevelopment process? Why has the democratic India not been able to dent the establishedsocial and economic inequalities? These are questions that Indian democracy will have tograpple with in the years to come. Do you think India will be able to do so?

Key words

Regional aspirations Coalition governments CommunalismMajority Minority

Improve your learning 1. Match the Following

economic liberalisation restriction in foreign import taxarbitrary dismissal of state governments by central governmentethnic cleansing towards people who are different from themselvesfederal principle greater autonomy for state governments

2. Identify the major changes in party system during the second phase of Independence.3. What are the major economic policies discussed in this and the previous chapters of

various governments at the centre and the state. How are they similar or different?4. How did regional aspirations lead to the formation of regional parties? Compare the

similarities and differences between the two different phases.5. In order to form governments it becomes necessary for political parties to attract

people from different sections of society. How did different political parties realisethese objectives in the second phase after independence?

6. What were the developments that weakened the inclusive nature of Indian polity?How is the ability to accommodate different communities and regional aspirationschanging?

7. How do different types of regional aspirations draw from cultural, and economicdimensions?

8. In the early half of India after independence there was importance given to planneddevelopment. In the later part emphasis was given to liberalisation. Discuss and findout how does it reflect political ideals?

9. Study newspapers and magazines to identify at least one example each of moderationin policies due to coalition and how do different political parties in coalition emphasisetheir regional demands?

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Emerging Political Trends 1977 to 2000 - Sakshi Education · 2016-03-18 · Tamil Nadu and West...

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