India awaits a two-party political system

India awaits a two-party political system

By Siddhartha Shankar Mishra

It will be fair to say that the issue at hand, though worthy of a lot of attention, has not received its due yet. However, in a house where currently 25 per cent of the ruling alliance's MPs belong to strong regional players, the reasons for this deliberate neglect are quite obvious and cogent. I am reminded of that famous statement made by Dr Manmohan Singh in the run up to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, wherein he said that voting for regional parties and independents in national elections is a waste of one's ballot.
Although he could not muster anything more than a few apoplectic regional allies and an awkward position for his party, whose chances were looking rather bleak if it were not supported by puny allies, there is a very profound logic behind his discourse. Besides, it is also intriguing that such a frugal yet potent statement, in the midst of an election which saw the worst form of rhetoric in Pilibhit, could have only come from someone of the perspicacity of our politician-cum-bureaucrat prime minister.
We are called the next big thing to arrive on the international stage, but we are also a nation whose Central government is held hostage to the irrational demands of unscrupulous allies, whenever the ruling coalition is in need, or worse still, on several occasions, is on its way towards a path-breaking change. We are an unfortunate nation whose multi-party ruling coalitions are forced to allocate the desired portfolios to its allies, even if it is at the cost of meritocracy. We are a unique democracy, where on several occasions; the performance of a national party depends upon the damage that a regional party does to its nearest rival.
The happenings in the run-up to the trust vote of July 2008, when the Congress was on the mat, bearing the brunt of going ahead with the 123 Agreement, which in the least of words, can be described as congenial for India, were quite an indicator of the type of political bickering that a multi-party system enforces upon a nation. In return for his support of five MPs, Shibu Soren, was invited to be the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, a state which has been at the receiving end of the highest levels of callousness from across the political spectrum.
The audacity with which J Jayalalitha announced to align with any alliance that would have dismissed the DMK government in Tamil Nadu turned out to be yet another reminder of the cost of a multi-party system and was engraved as one of the several black spots in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Furthermore, the dependence of the non-performing Maharashtra Congress on the Maharastra Navnirman Sena (MNS's) performance in both the general and the state elections was nothing more than a national shame.
Although such horrendous cases are not new to the Indian system, India, today, finds itself in the middle of a situation, where it needs political stability as a predetermined assumption to soar on the international stage. A situation where allies within the ruling coalition continue nudging and elbowing the largest party in the Lok Sabha will do no good, but unfortunately, Indian politics is still not adept and mature to evade such situations.
And that is where the need for a two-party system emerges. Cynics might argue that with India's vast population, multiple cultures, traditions and communities, two central parties can never be successful in understanding the needs of 1.2 billion people and I sincerely concede the fact. According to my limited knowledge of governance and politics, states may well continue to run with regional parties and a central agency consisting of members of elected representatives from all the parties of all states must regularly co-ordinate with the Central government. Although this solution may sound quite rudimentary and may be slammed by many to be naïve, I am sure that the mandarins in Delhi can come up with better methods to tame the issue.
Further, it will be quite imbecile on my part not to underscore the fact that such a huge metamorphosis may take years, for mustering political consensus on such a humongous issue is a Gordian knot to cut, but that is where the catch lies. For the nation to rise, personal interests will have to be sacrificed. If we are to be the biggest and not the next big thing on the international stage, this is the price that our politicians will have to pay.
A supreme nation bereft of unscrupulous and unwanted politicians and politics might not be a bad place to live in. As far as the intelligentsia in the regional parties is concerned, it will find many takers even in a two-party system. The idea may sound way too romantic, but in this need of hour, it seems to be the ultimate panacea. (CNF)