1)

The demolition of Babri Masjid

2)

Formation of the Janata Dal

3)

Assassination of Indira Gandhi

4)

Mandal Recommendations and Anti Reservation Stir

5)

The formation of NDA government

6)

Godhra incident and its fallout

7)

Formation of the UPA government

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.

It is correct that in the new era of coalition politics, political parties are not aligning or realigning on the basis of ideology. Now emphasis is laid on pragmatic considerations rather than ideological positions and political alliances without ideological agreement are made. The focus of political parties has, therefore, shifted from ideological differences to power-sharing arrangements. The political equations have become unstable. For example in 1989, both Left and BJP supported the National Front Government because they wanted to keep the Congress out of power. In 1996, The Left continued to support the non-Congress government but this time the Congress supported it, as both the Congress and the Left wanted to keep the BJP out of power. Similarly most parties of the NDA (1999-2004) did not agree with the ‘Hindutva’ ideology of the BJP but they came together to form a government and remained in power for a full term.