Equal Stakes: On Accommodative
Politics
Accommodative politics is often the
result of expediency, but it holds intrinsic value
For the
primary time in nearly 25 years, all members of the Union Cabinet are
from one party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. The death of Lok
Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan, three weeks after the Shiromani Akali
Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the cupboard in protest
against legislation that her party sees as anti-farmer, has suddenly
created this case, but it's been within the making
for a long time. In 2019, the Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant resigned
from the cupboard after the party broke with the BJP. In 2014, the
BJP won quite half the seats within the Lok Sabha, the
primary time one party won a majority since 1984. In 2019, the
party increased its tally and isn't obsessed on the other party
for the government’s survival, though it's a minimum of twenty-four allies within
the NDA. Alliance politics had come to be derided as an indication of
instability, indecision and policy paralysis within the dominant
discourse of Indian politics before 2014. Conversely, the emergence of one party’s
dominance was welcomed as a replacement era of stability and
decisiveness. The BJP chose to be more triumphalist than gracious in its
victory. Decisions of far-reaching consequences like the
changes within the status of Jammu and Kashmir and eligibility of
citizenship were made with no inputs from regional political groups, including
its own allies.
Involvement of regional and smaller parties will only make governance more
robust and inclusive at the national level. The tendency to contemplate regional
forces as a hindrance to a national vision isn't the BJP’s creation,
though it amplified it. The emergence of regional and communitarian politics
is partially a response to the Congress’s failure to be sufficiently
sensitive and accommodative of assorted social and linguistic groups.
SAD leader Sukhbir Badal flagged this as a lesson for the BJP — that domination
can easily cause a complete collapse. within the case
of the BJP, its parliamentary majority itself is concentrated within the north and
therefore the west of India, and among particular communities. there's a
powerful case for the party to be more accommodative towards regions and
communities that don't seem to be a part of its political map.
The party has taken some steps like inducting Nirmala Sitharaman, a
Tamil, and V. Muraleedharan, a Malayali, within the Union Council of
Ministers though the BJP isn't keen about Tamil Nadu or
Kerala for its parliamentary majority. Stability is simply enhanced
when the stakes are cosmopolitan in a very polity. true created
by the death of Paswan and also the resignation of Ms. Badal
opens a chance for the BJP to re-examine its approach to regions and
social groups. Adequate representation within the Council of
Ministers could be a necessary condition, and a start line,
towards a more consultative decision-making process that may guarantee
more desirable outcomes.
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