Tag Archives: POLITICS-India-Democracy

The book is full of perceptive insights like the discussion of the different terms used in Indian languages for the terms ‘nation’ and ‘state’—desam and arasu in Tamil, jati and rashtra in Bengali, and the implications of that (p. 17); an analysis of the stability of India’s federal democracy if the ‘Hindu ethnic group’ (80% of the population) is mobilized, or alternatively, if the ‘Hindi ethnic group’ (slightly less than 40% of the population) is focused on as the largest linguistic group (p. 288). There is also a fascinating discussion on the difference between an understanding of the norm as the empirical average or as the normative.

The question is: Can Indian democracy survive the series of assaults on it, from Indira Gandhi’s Emergency in the mid-70s to the present decade, when such assaults have been exacerbated? According to Diego Maiorano, Manor’s optimism about the regenerative qualities of Indian democracy in the post-Emergency period is somewhat misplaced in today’s context. Maiorano sees the cumulative damage inflicted on Indian democracy as leaving permanent scars on its institutions.

Overall, Yechury’s analysis offers one of the most comprehensive examinations of the predicaments facing the Indian Republic from the benches of Indian political opposition. His Marxist training, academic background, and decades of experience as a senior CPI(M) politician have given his arguments analytical rigour and clarity. However, a significant lacuna remains regarding the question of ‘What is to be done?’.

Ujjwal Kumar Singh and Anupama Roy focus on the Emergency laws of the era. They trace back the emergence of such laws right from the Law Commission report that led to the enactment of the Indian Penal Code, all the way through colonial and postcolonial laws, till MISA and how it was implemented during the Emergency.

What does the book find? First, the book shows that employing the existing populism model—which posits that populists are defined by ‘the people’ and subsequently identify ‘the other’—is akin to putting the cart before the horse. Ayyangar argues that in India, boundary setting occurs first: the ‘enemy’ is identified upfront, and the idea of the people is ‘capaciously’ constructed from those who do not constitute the enemy.

He further notes that in the history of Indian politics, the ability of the political actors and stakeholders ‘to mediate between diverse interests exemplified the essence of coalition politics. Coalitions go beyond managing electoral arithmetic to focusing on governance in diverse polity based on negotiation.’ He emphasizes on the ‘spirit of coalition-building’ that is essential to accommodate the divergent

The first case study presents an overview of Parliamentary Debates on the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka to show ‘how foreign policy was crafted in a federal structure’ (p. 52). Debates in Parliament over the deployment compelled the Government to reconsider its course, creating a precedent for India’s regional strategy rooted in respect for sovereignty and mutual sensitivities.

Minister of Home Affairs, P Chidambaram, in his speech in the Lok Sabha delivered on 7 May 2010 tried explaining how ‘caste-wise enumeration may affect the accuracy of headcount and the integrity of the census’ (p. 103). The veteran political leaders of socialist background who consistently raised the issues of social justice in the Indian Parliament namely Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh and Sharad Yadav sensed a conspiracy on the part of Chidambaram and hence forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha immediately after the latter’s the speech.

Moving from academic to the media which also represents the dominant caste groups’ interests as the nation’s interests, the book critiques the way elections and their outcomes are articulated and portrayed largely as a ‘zero sum game’ or ‘a winner takes it all’ ignoring the dynamic, aspirational and normative motives of the electorate. The theatricality and the triumphalist nature of the reporting of electoral outcomes or simply put, results which include political analysts, psephologists and other ‘political pundits’, set the narrative and deliberate in such a manner that completely ignores the interests of the Dalits in the country.

Lee’s work begins by highlighting the stark contradiction of impunity prevailing over democracy: despite being a democracy, nearly half of its elected representatives face criminal charges, exemplifying the deep-rooted nature of impunity within its political system. Each chapter then dissects a dimension of this problem—from systemic underfunding to bureaucratic centralization, elite manipulation of postings,