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Recent Developments in Indian politics
The main issues in Indian politics in the period after 1989 were as given below :
(i) Rise of Other Backward Classes as a political force.
(ii) Decision of the National Front government to implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission and subsequent stir.
(iii) Rise of politics based on religious identity and debate about secularism and democracy.
(iv) Demolition of Babri Masjid.
(v) Anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat.
(vi) End of Congress dominance and beginning of era of coalition politics.
These issues led to different configurations of political parties as mentioned below :
(i) Political parties accepted the political and social claims of the backward castes. All political parties began to support reservation of seats for the backward classes in education and employment.
(ii) This gave rise to an era of coalition politics. Coalition governments were formed i.e., National Front in 1989, the United Front in 1996 and 1997, the NDA in 1997, BJP led coalition in 1998.NDA in 1999 and the UPA in 2004 and 2009.
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Party politics in India has confronted numerous challenges. Not only has the Congress system destroyed itself, but the fragmentation of the Congress coalition has triggered a new emphasis on self-representation which raises questions about the pary system and its capacity to accommodate diverse interests.....An important test facing the polity is to evolve a party system or political parties that can effectively articulate and aggregate a variety of interests. —Zoya Hasan
(a) Write a short note on what the author calls challenges of the party system in the light of what you have read in this chapter.
(b) Give an example from this chapter of the lack of accommodation and aggrigation mentioned in this passage.
(c) Why is it necessary for parties to accommodate and aggregate variety of interests ?
‘1989 elections marked the end of what the political scientists have called the ________.”
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