Decentralization of Party Politics in India

This article examines why there is need for the role of political parties to become inclusive and more participative by more involvement of local politicians i.e. decentralisation of political parties.

Increasing involvement of local politicians

In the recent past we’ve gone through various news regarding so calledpolitical activists on behalf of their political party creating nuisance and doing many discomforting actions, for example the recent Ramjas College fiasco. The most interesting part is that the party they say they are associated to; distance itself from those people denying any link with the party. The basic reason behind this is that those activists want themselves to be heard. These activists are lower level of politicians or local politicians of the party who indulge in such actions to win favour of their superiors for their political advancement. Now, the question arises that why these local politicians have to act in such manner to get attention?

The fundamental answer to this question is the lack of inner party democracy in India which further leads to no or less involvement of lower level politicians or local politicians.

Lack of Inner party democracy

Whenever we are asked that who will succeed Sonia Gandhi as President of Indian National Congress our only answer is Rahul Gandhi. But there are other competent leaders as well in the party such as Mani Shankar Ayyar or Kamal Nath or dynamic Shashi Tharoor then why do we focus only on the surname ‘Gandhi’. This is not only with Congress but there are other parties as well following the similar tradition. If we look at the leadership of various political parties in India, we can easily infer that our democracy is only skin deep. Not only do the leaders promote their kith and kins, they run their parties as their privateproperty preventing free voicing of opinions. Any contradictory voice is shown the way out of the party.

Nomination of the candidates by the political parties also does not have any transparent process and is subject to the whims and fancies of the ruling set. There are cases where sale of party tickets for the election is done to the highest bidder which is a scar on democratic nature of Indian politics.Therefore, the nomination process is needed to be brought under public scrutiny and a model is to be devised where candidates for representing constituencies are selected after a due process.

Hence, these prevailing conditions push the lower strata of politicians to do anything to advance or they will have low or no participation in actual party politics. They have to make themselves heard before the leaders of the party to advance their political career or they will be mere activists. One solution of this problem can be decentralisation of the political parties.

Decentralisation of Party politics in India

From the existing abuse of parliamentary democracy within a political party it can be easily inferred that all the powers and functions within a political party is performed from a central location or by few leaders who hold supreme position in the party. This centralised system has to be curbed for a proper parliamentary democracy to prevail in India and all the political must be decentralised which means redistributing or dispersing functions, powers, people or things away from the central location or authority. Decentralisation will give the local politicians more power and influence and moreover they will get chance to voice their opinions inside the party. This will further give them incentive to work harder for the betterment of the party and hence they would be adding to the improvement process of the party. Also, being local leaders they will know their areas well- its geography as well as demography and would help to make policy and implement them accordingly. This would further the stronghold of the party in that area and hence would help the party drastically in the elections. Also, the leaders of the upper level of the parties should be accessible so that the local politician can further their opinions as well as grievances in person and do not have to act inappropriately to get themselves heard. The leaders must also nurture these local politicians by teaching them the dos and don’ts of the politics, hence, shaping the future of Indian politics.

Furthermore, if these local leaders get enough incentives to work upon, the political parties will no longer have to distance itself from their actions nor will these local politicians have to do anything discomforting for their party to get attention.

Conclusion

Thus, decentralisation of power within a party will solve the existing problems electoral politics in India is facing. It will deepen and add more meaning to our democracy and will have an impact directly on the kind of people joining politics and a bearing on the choice available to the electorate.