The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : ‘Most political parties have no identifiable internal structure’

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Thursday, Dec 06, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

‘Most political parties have no identifiable internal structure’

Special Correspondent

— Photo: V. Ganesan

IN DISCUSSION: At the launch of ‘Short on Democracy’ in Chennai on Wednesday, the book’s editor Arvind Sivaramakrishnan (centre) has a word with contributors V. Krishna Ananth and C. Lakshmanan (right).

CHENNAI: Indian democracy has not been short of praise, but much of that is because of the tendency to make a “lazy equation of democracy with elections.” A new book of essays compiled by political scientist Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, titled Short on Democracy: Issues facing Indian political parties does not make that mistake.

Instead, it “challenges the romanticisation of Indian democracy” by exploring “why India’s political parties seem to be seriously devoid of policy, ideology and practice on issues that matter,” said N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, while launching the book in Chennai on Wednesday.

The book questions any claim that political parties may have to be representative and accountable bodies in a republican democracy by pointing out that most of them “have no identifiable internal structure…and almost never state their policies or intentions in any but the most general terms.”

Mr. Ram pointed out that this becomes more serious in the light of India’s sorry condition in relation to poverty, malnourishment, illiteracy and the lack of basic infrastructure. “Political parties have not done anything like enough — have fared miserably, in fact — in dealing with real conditions in India,” he said.

In the collection, published by imprintOne, ten reputed academics and journalists, examine the track record of selected parties, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and several regional parties. The Left parties are a significant omission, but Mr. Sivaramakrishnan said they could be the topic of a future volume.

Parties’ records on foreign policy and other relevant issues such as land acquisition and the rural crisis could also be dealt with in future works, he said.

In a discussion with the students of the Asian College of Journalism at the book launch, Mr. Sivaramakrishnan made it clear that voters are partly to blame for the attitude of political parties. “Shouldn’t the electorate demand ordinary detailed policy explanations from their candidates?” he asked, adding that because of our silence, “we enable our elected representatives to claim mandates for things they never even referred to in their manifestos.”

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