End of the Rao Era
From its beginning in 1947, India was a stable political structure, washing out the autocratic chapters of the British regime to restructure the Vedic and Sufi principles into a set of rules and regulations that ensure the basic rights of every Indian citizen. The Indian National Congress held full power in Delhi with the narrative that Gandhism and leadership in the freedom struggle are fundamentally rightful seat-holders in the Lok Sabha's treasury benches. Voters opted for a non-Congress government in 1977, led by the Morarjibhai Desai-led Janata Party. The economic policies introduced by the Narashima Rao government facilitated international competitors to make their moves in the Indian economy. The Rao ministry dealt with the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid case, which changed the political arena in later years and paved the way for the expansion of the BJP. Giving scores to Narashima Rao's ministry is quite difficult because it was an era when Indian politics was blended in nature, economic policies were just being instituted, and nuclear programmes were conducted in Pokhran, a question mark on India’s social harmony, scandals, and a lot more factors. An average voter may wonder what the situation is and what India's national priorities should be.
NDA: The Unfortunate Victory
The abolishment of Babri Masjid, the abbrogation of Article 370, and Rath Yatra, led by Mr. Lal Krishan Advani, were able to acquire popularity in western, central, and north India. The right-wing votes were consolidated and showed that they favoured the BJP. The minority section remained loyal to the Congress Party, while the other backward sections backed the Janata Dal. The BJP also attempted to add several regional parties, including AIADMK and BSP, but it became unsuccessful due to ideological differences. The 1996 general election results were quite confusing and interesting at the same time. India saw a hung parliament after V.P Singh's victory. Rath yatra and all those factors which BJP uplifted during the campaign showed the results, but even though NDA was the largest block in the house, on the 28th of May, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee admitted that he couldn't get more than 200 of the 545 members of parliament to support him, so he resigned rather than face a confidence vote, effectively terminating his 13-day government. The viral clip of his resignation is still popular now. In his speech, he quotes, "We will come again, with greater strength and greater power." The BJP is a cadre party with the ultimate support of the RSS, strategizing both their victories and losses in order to maintain their position in current Indian politics. Every Indian knows that after the 13-day government’s resignation, India is going through an unstable scenario and has started discussing alternatives.
The Kings And The Kingmakers.
At a conference of all the other parties, the Indian National Congress, which had a majority of 140 seats, declined to lead the government and instead opted to lend outside support to a coalition led by the Janata Dal, dubbed the "United Front." The Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Communist Party of India, and Telugu Desam Party were among the front's other members. After V. P. Singh and Jyoti Basu declined, the existing Chief Minister of Karnataka, H. D. Deve Gowda, was requested to lead the coalition as Prime Minister with the support of the Congress and the CPI(M). From June 1, 1996, until April 21, 1997. Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sitaram Kesari were among the prominent leaders who supported the rebel within the Janata party and ultimately congress withdrew support from the Gowda ministry. It made a deal to back a new government led by I. K. Gujral, who served as Prime Minister from April 21, 1997, until March 19, 1998. After his government fell apart, new elections were scheduled, and the United Front lost power. 6 non-confidence motions were introduced in the house, the element of instability was clear, the common minimum programme became mere an agreement, and the lack of leadership efforts of INC also resulted in back-to-back government formations in India. The coalition was not a great initiative, was later realised by the leaders' reason being Janata Party which won 305 seats in the 1996 election, came down to 85 seats in 1998 seats, which explicitly shows that the Indian electorate was against the coalitions or may be interpreted as that they want a stable government in the Union.
Precipice Alliances
The results of the 1988 general election resulted in the formation of another hung parliament, with no single party or coalition able to form a majority. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party's Atal Bihari Vajpayee was able to form a coalition government with the assistance of the Telugu Desam Party, led by the National Democratic Alliance. With the votes of 272 out of 543 MPs, he was sworn in as Prime Minister. However, on April 17, 1999, his administration fell apart when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam withdrew its support. As a result of this, new elections were held in 1999. The Lok Sabha election more or less showed the expected results as the NDA was voted back to power, with the Telugu Desam Party supporting the front, and a lot of factors of the NDA government helped them to remain on Delhi’s throne, such as the Kandahar Hijack, nuclear testing, development in education and healthcare, Ram Mandir etc. Unknowingly or not, India was moving toward a presidential-style federal election in which the face of the party is more important than the ideology of the party. Again, when the 2004 general election results were announced, every political analyst was shocked. With the Indian National Congress being the largest party in the house and the formation of the UPA, political parties were trying to experiment with coalitions, which showed quite good results in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections also.
The Missing Link
After the Janata governments, Indian voters were quite annoyed with the grand coalitions. The pattern of voting in today’s electoral politics is very clear now. The real success of the BJP and NDA was not their ideological structure or policies, but rather the face of Mr. Vajpayee. The BJP realised after the 2004 elections that they could use this brand, and the UPA realised the same thing in 2009. Even though the Congress never officially announced that Mr. Singh would be their prime ministerial candidate, it was quite understandable that if they voted back, Mr. Singh would be the Prime Minister. One more thing should be observed is the change in voting pattern. Now a voter intellectually votes differently in state and central elections (above caste and convection basis), which explicitly means a common voter doesn't want a coalition government in the centre. This ultimately benefited the BJP, a cadre party with strong RSS support and a popular face like Mr. Narendra Modi. So there is no doubt why India’s general elections in 2014 and 2019 became a presidential type of election.
Comentários