All India Radio
Need for Democracy within Political Parties
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TOPIC: General Studies 2
- Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity.
In news: PM called for a debate on internal democracy in political parties. The development of a true democratic state is within its political parties which is necessary for the country’s future and democracy.
To make democracy within political parties is subject of debate as people are not aware of the structure of the parties, their ideology and functioning. This is also very crucial as rarely a political party regularly organises its elections, selections, internal party setup and changes made within the party leadership. Funding to political parties is often debated but not their values, ideologies, internal democracy and how they give opportunities to the new generation of leaders.
Democratic ethos is not consistent in India’s political parties. The two national parties are one story of Indian politics. But in many states, dynastic politics is still prevalent- Jammu and Kashmir has National Conference, Uttar Pradesh has Samajwadi Party, BSP is not dynastic but centralises power completely, Trinamul Congress is emerging as one woman party, AIADMK though is not dynastic, it is also very centralised, RJD has one family controlling the entire party, DMK, Akali Dal and Shiv Sena are dynastic and AAP is too new to be analysed on it. Thus, the whole scenario is promoting the children and relatives of few family lineages.
One of the reasons why senior leaders have turned away from senior colleagues in parties is because they feel they wont stand a chance against family preferences. As Indian politics has lots of money, families- generations and extended- are interested to be affiliated with political parties.
Encouraging new generation of leaders
The demographic dividend is huge energy which India has in the form of 65% of its population being under the age of 35. This is the segment which, if it ventures into politics and in a transparent way of functioning of political parties, can change the way Indian politics function presently. If a person joins a political party how she or he will be accommodated in the party? What kind of avenues this political career? All these things matter to coming generation. For long, there is a widespread impression created that lot of good people shy away from politics. It is therefore necessary that this impression be changed and efficient people brought into political arena.
Conclusion
There are many other issues like the disorder in Parliament, the non-functioning of parliament in a smooth manner, state funding of election or electoral reforms over the decades which have been talked many a time but little significant output has come out of it. So this thing of inner party democracy is being very vital as India has parliamentary democracy and functioning of parties is as critical as the functioning of parliament.
It is a stupendous task to undo the varied structure of the way India’s political parties are questioned. This calls for the media opinion and public opinion.
Unless some serious reforms are not done about it, Indian parliament and Indian politics will be limited to 500 families alone and that doesn’t speak well for democracy. The paradox is- the power is getting decentralised because of the vote to communities that are not so far developed, intermediate castes who have not been at the top and it amounts to inserting powers and from the other hand there is this parallel trend of power getting concentrated in the hands of few families.
Connecting the dots:
- “The development of a country’s polity has its base on political ideologies prevailing in that country.” Analyse the statement with suitable examples.
