Challenge of Building Democracy
- After independence, our leaders became conscious of critical role of politics in a democracy as they wanted to run politics as a method to sort out problems as well as to decide and pursue the public interest.
- Consequently, the Election Commission of India came into existence in January 1950.
- Sukumar Sen became first Chief Election Commissioner of India to hold elections in the country.
- This commission required the drawing of the boundaries of electoral constituencies, electoral roll consisting eligible voters to hold free and fair elections.
- The first general election of India became a landmark due to its competitiveness, encouraging participation, fair results and proved its critics wrong not to hold elections in conditions of poverty.
- India’s vast size and low literacy rate etc. were some of challenges to hold general elections in 1952. Despite these challenges the election was held successfully in 1952.
Election Commission’s challenges
- Demarcation of constituencies for holding elections
- Voter list preparation
- At that time there were 17 crore voters in India
- They were to choose 3200 MLAs and 498 MPs.
- Only 15 percent of voters were literate
- 3 lakh officers were trained to complete voting
Changing Methods of Voting
- In the first general election it was decided to place inside each polling booth a box for each candidate with the election symbol of that candidate.
- By 2004 the entire country had shifted to the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
First Three General Elections
- The Congress dominated in the first three general elections. It had many popular faces like Jawaharlal Nehru, C Rajagopalachari, Vallabhbhai Patel etc. Moreover, Jawaharlal Nehru was charismatic and a very popular leader.
- In the 1952 election Congress party scored a big victory but it was not in power in the states like Travancore—Cochin i.e. Kerala, Madras and Orissa.
- Congress dominated in India due to identification with freedom struggle, popular appeal of charismatic leaders, a broad manifesto including every section of society and consensus building role of party.
- Congress worked at upper level as well as at grass root level. Congress was popularized due to the participation in Civil Disobedience Movement.
- In Kerala, in 1957 the Communist Party came to power in the world for the first time through democratic elections.
- This was the first state where Non-Congress Government was formed after independence.
Nature of Congress Dominance
- The dominance of Congress party was in democratic condition. The roots of extraordinary success of the Congress party go back to the legacy of the freedom struggle.
- The Congress brought together diverse groups; whose interests were often contradictory.
- By the time of independence, the Congress was transformed into a rainbow-like social coalition broadly representing India’s diversity in terms of classes and castes, religions and languages and various interests.
- This coalition-like character of Congress gave it an unusual strength.
Tolerance and Management of Factions
- Groups within party with diverse ideologies are called factions.
- The coalition nature of the Congress Party encouraged various factions which were based on either ideological considerations or personal ambitions or rivalries.
- The coalition nature of the Congress party tolerated and in fact encouraged various factions.
Emergence of Opposition Parties
- Before the first General Election of 1952, some of the vibrant and opposite parties came into existence which gained as a token of representation only to maintain democratic character.
- These parties kept ruling party under check, prevented resentment, groomed leaders, along with a mutual respect and among Congress leaders as well as opposition parties’ leaders.
- The roots of almost all the Non-Congress parties of today can be traced to one or the other of the opposition parties of the 1950s.
- These opposition parties offered a sustained and often principled criticism of the policies and practices of the Congress party.
- This kept the ruling party under check and often changed the balance of power within the Congress.
Congress Party
- Congress was founded by Dr. A.O. Hume in 1885 as a view to express the feelings of discontentment changed to a political party in the form of social and ideological coalition by accommodating different social groups and individuals holding different beliefs and ideologies.
- Even in pre-independence days, many organisation and parties with their own constitutions and organizational structures were allowed to exist within the Congress.
Socialist Party
- The origin of the socialist party can be traced back to the mass movement stage of the Indian National Congress which was formed in 1934 by Acharya Narendra Dev and later on.
- In 1948, the Congress amended its Constitution to prevent its members from having a dual-party membership. This forced the socialists to form a separate socialist party in 1948.
- They criticized the Congress for favoring capitalists and landlords and for ignoring the workers and peasants.
The Communist Party of India (CPI)
- In the early 1920s communist groups emerged in different parts of India taking inspiration from the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
- The Communist Party of India was primarily secular, modern and authoritarian.
- In 1951 the communist party abandoned the path of violent revolution and decided to participate in the approaching general elections.
- A.K. Gopalan, S.A. Dange, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, PC Joshi, Ajay Ghosh and P. Sundarayya were among the notable leaders of the CPI.
Jana Sangh (JS)
- The Bhartiya Jana Sangh was formed in 1951 with Shyama Prasad Mukherjee as its founder President.
- It emphasized the idea of one country, one culture and one nation and believed that the country could become modem, progressive and strong on the basis of Indian culture and traditions.
- The Bhartiya Jana Sangh party was a consistent advocate of India developing nuclear weapons especially after China carried out its atomic tests in 1964.
Swatantra Party
- Swatantra Party was formed in August 1959 after the Nagpur Resolution of the Congress which called for land ceilings.
- Its important leaders were C. Rajagopalachari, K.M. Munshi, N.G. Ranga, and Minoo Masani.
- The party was critical of the development strategy of state intervention in the economy, centralized planning, nationalization and the public sector. It instead favored expansion of a free private sector.
- Its ideology emphasized on the free economy and less involvement of government in controlling the economy and advocated closer relations with the USA.
WORDS THAT MATTER
- Electronic Voting Machine (EVM): It is a voting machine to record voters’ performances on electric device, used through election processes.
- First Past the Post System: This is the simple majority system in which the candidate gets the maximum number of votes is declared as elected.
- Ideological Oriented Party: It is the party in which policies and decisions are formulated under ideological considerations.
- Interest-Oriented Party: This party protects particular interests and promotes the same also i.e. caste, community, region, tribes etc.
- Charismatic Leader Oriented Party: It is the party in which leader holds a very strong position and is the nucleus of the party.
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