'Divided We Fall" [Regional parties are the bane of Indian politics] Editorial - GT - 4 Dec, 2007.
As senior journalist and political analyst Amulya Ganguli has rightly observes, the split of political parties in India is beginning to take its toll. When regional parties began to appear in India following the first signs of the Congress decline in the 1960s, they were hailed for two reasons. One was that they reflected local aspirations, which a 'national' party t ended to overlook. And the other was that they were said to represent the subalterns or the marginalized sections that didn't have much of a say in a party like the Congress, which was dominated by the upper castes. The 122-year-old Congress has long been regarded as a national party because of its role during the independence movement. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has lately acquired this status because of its vote share and number of seats in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) - 22.1 per cent and 138 seats against the Congress's 26.6 per cent and 145 seats. However, the BJP hardly has any presence in the south and the east. The first major regional parties to make their presence felt were the Lok Dal in the Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana in the north, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu in the south - both championing the cause of the backward castes. Over the years, there has been a proliferation of such parties like the Janata Dal (RJD) with their bases in Bihar, the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa and the Janata Dal-Secular in Karnataka. In Tamil Nadu, there is now the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK, which broke away from the DMK, and other similar organizations. Their growing presence is due to the failure of the Congress to recover its lost ground, turning it virtually into a regional party. Despite this limitation, however, the Congress still retains something of a national vision because of its long history. If the regional parties have failed to acquire such an outlook, the reason is that their focus remains solely on either their provinces or castes or ideologies despite their participation in coalitions at the national level. It is obviously because of their restricted vision that they are rarely entrusted with portfolios like external affairs or home or finance. The 'national' parties prefer to keep these with themselves because their regional allies simply do not have the ability to think on a scale that is not limited to their states or communities or doctrines. Not only that, they are also hamstrung by strong prejudices that can hamper their functioning in such crucial ministries, which have to operate on an international stage or deal with financial matters affecting the entire country or act impartially where law and order is concerned. For instance, as the praise of Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi for a slain leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has made him turn a blind eye to the LTTE's horrendous record of terrorism, which includes the assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It doesn't take much perspicacity to see that a party like DMK cannot be given charge of foreign affairs because its tunnel vision makes it blind to anything outside its immediate environs. It is also evident that being a partner of an alliance at the center hasn't enabled it to broaden its outlook in any way. COMMENTS: The Goa Su-Raj Party is happy that serious political thoughts on the desired political reformation are being aired in the esteemed editorials of our newspapers, of late. We are happy that our inputs as 'response' to the previous editorial 'WRONG REMEDY' [ GT- 27 Nov, 2007] has been published in the 'letters to the editor' - [GT- 29 Nov, 2007]. Needless to say that we thank GT for the same. It is a fact that regionalistic feelings among the peoples of India have taken precedence over the nationalistic feelings. For this, the blame has to be placed at the feet of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru to a greater extent. It was he who dreamt of 'coloquial India' - of preserving the unique different languages and cultures of diverse Indian populace to reflect as the all encompassing linguistic and cultural 'mosaic ' of India. This, sadly, has kept the people of India totally and hopelessly divided and suspicious of each other. An example to cite is the sorry state of affairs in Goa where Goans preferring to use its mother tongue 'Konkanni', and, Marathi, which is basically the religious language of the Goan Hindus, are at logger-heads with one another for over 45 years for wanting the supremacy for their preferred language, thereby affecting the development and advancement of the state. Look at Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia. These people do not fight over what language to speak. And see the progress that they have made. India, being the latent super-power, is divided over languages and cultures where a citizen from the North cannot be understood by a citizen from the South, thereby the brotherhood having been lost, giving rise to suspicion and distrust. Therefore, it was inevitable that India would break-up in regionalism. This is exactly what has happened and we need not give prizes to anyone for having foreseen this coming. In Goa, the feelings of distrust with India and its national parties among most Goans still strongly prevails and talks of contesting India's take-over of Goa in the United Nations and the World Court in Haig still persist as it is believed that a few years still remain open for this challenge, considering that Goa was annexed by India by military force, a thing that India was not supposed to do, being the signatory to this Charter. This then is the dividing factor in India where peoples cannot come together as one and lead the country towards progress and peace. It is said that when there is all round progress, peace comes automatically. This fledgeling party of Goa cannot be considered an ordinary political party bent on seeing its fortunes turn at the hustings to wield power. It must be understood that this fledgeling party is a reformist party which wants electoral reforms to come to the Indian political scene and take it by storm. Then only India will be the rightful super-power of the world that most developed countries, including the United States of America, have realised and want to be partners in its nuclear policy, when they would otherwise shun from even considering. To break the impasse and bring India out of this regional political chaos, the Goa Su-Raj Party advocates a 'TWO PARTY' electoral system for India set up on the basis of 'Proportional Representation'. This is the only solution to check-mate the existing 'first past the flag-post' electoral system which is causing endless damage to the diverse people of India as well as the nation. goasuraj ----------------------------------------------------------------- GOA needs a 'REVOLUTION' if it is to see better days. Goasuraj is that revolution. It needs your support. email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: www.goasu-raj.org Ph: 2266111 - (M) 9890470896
