In the past some expressed doubts about the capacity of a diverse country such as India, to hold on to its democratic system. Yet Indians have been choosing their representatives regularly for more than half a century. How healthy is Indian democracy?
This general election is an event that deserves to be celebrated not only by India but all over the world. The fact that we hold election regularly; it is truly remarkable that people choose their candidates without fear and do so fairly. It was commonly believed that India was too big, diverse and fragmented to be run by a democracy, as it is a multicultural and multilingual democracy. Yet, now we are at our 15th election and it has the largest ever electorate: 714 million voters. This is a number larger than the population of Europe. It is something to celebrate, but of course there are weaknesses. Instead of just celebrating the conduct of the elections, I think it is important for Indian citizens to look at what happens between elections. The quality of governance provided and the functioning of public institutions are declining. I believe a lot more can be done in public policies for areas such as health, education and the environment. I think it would be good if a serious debate was opened on questions of governance.
One of the features of this election seems to be the growing political strength of regional parties. Do you believe this is a symptom of the deepening of democracy or a mark of emerging latent tensions concerning the central government?
On one level, since India is so large in the religious and even more so linguistically, the proliferation of regional parties and the decline of national parties is a sign of the deepening of Indian democracy. Because of this diversity, it is hard to envisage a single party dominating the entire country. Yes, it did happen with the Congress Party in the first years of independence; it was able to represent the entire country because it was Gandhi’s party. It was the party that helped India gain independence from British rule. But, inevitably, over a period of time those groups that felt marginalised, that were geographically distant and excluded from the power centre of New Delhi, wanted their own representatives, their own parties. So this is what is steadily happening. On another level, the negative aspect of having so many regional parties is that we have to form a national government. We have 28 states, but we are still one country. The presence of so many small parties results in weak multiparty coalition governments.
So does this reverse side of the coin of a more solid Indian democracy mean that needed reforms will languish?
Absolutely. Most of the Prime Minister’s time will be spent on massaging the egos of his coalition partners, while India continues to be a very unequal society. I have identified five sectors – education, health, environment, economy and foreign policy – that a government should handle by implementing far-sighted policies.
How can the socio-economic gap be narrowed?
By empowering citizens, promoting good education and health care for all, planning for long term development through sustainable environmental policies. However, these are the kinds of things one is not going to get with a weak multiparty coalition government. What we need over the long term is a balance between central and regional interests. I don’t think one or two parties can represent India, but I do believe that now we have gone too far in the extreme as far as regional parties are concerned. So after this election I hope a degree of balance will return.
Several small parties play the identity card, which is often caste. Do you believe that Indians cast their vote according to their caste more than they did before?
No. However, I do think caste is an important player. But languages and regions are also important. In the city caste is becoming less important. For example, there are many more inter-caste marriages. In the rural area, if you are born to a blacksmith, you too will be a blacksmith. In cities instead, the link between occupation and caste is getting weaker. Caste it still important but is playing a slightly declining role in politics.
Is the decline of national parties only the result of the growth of regional parties, or are the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also responsible for this?
Yes, there are weaknesses in within parties. The Congress Party suffers because of its over-reliance on a single family. It is a centralized party in which Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul decide everything that is important. What the Congress Party should do is to rebuild its local, district level organizations. While the Bharatiya Janata Party’s main weakness is ideological. It is unable to give up its hard-line Hindu agenda. A section of the Indian middle-class hoped that the party would reinvent itself on the model of the Christian Democrats in Germany. They also stand for traditional family values, but they do not hate Muslims or Jews. Instead, the BJP hates Muslims and Christians. But the majority of Indians are moderate. Most Hindus do not approve of beating up Christians or destroying mosques. Hence, only if the BJP clearly separates itself from the politics of hatred and stops claiming Hindu superiority, will it become a great party.