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Coalition Politics: how has the centre-state relationship been since the 1990s?

Meghashree Dev
By Meghashree Dev
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Credits : snappygoat

After gaining independence in 1947 India could finally see the light at the end of a dark tunnel. The newly independent country soon witnessed the politics of centre-state relations gaining momentum and beginning to influence and mould India’s national and foreign policy significantly. 

A coalition government is said to be one where a number of minority parties join hands for the purpose of running the government which is otherwise not possible. The early years of post-Independence saw extremely robust, nearly monolithic governments formed by the Congress. Even after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress party dominated the political arena and regional parties did not have much say or influence in policy making and taking important decisions for the country. Although the more dominant and powerful regional parties did take a stand on economic and political matters of their states in particular and the nation as a whole, they did not have the required political capital to have any substantial impact. In 1977, India experienced its first coalition government, with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister. However, it did not last for long and Charan Singh’s coalition government succeeded it in 1979; also suffering the same fate and lasting for merely 171 days.

It was in the succeeding decade after the death of Indira Gandhi in 1984 that the experiment with coalitions was truly tried and tested; even then mostly to little success. The change of scenario from the 1990s occurred with the United Front Experiment that eventually led to the NDA and UPA coalition governments which from the beginning heavily depended upon regional allies. Drained by the decrepit governance for years, Indians got some semblance of normalcy in the form of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance in 1999-2004 and then two terms of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) between 2004 and 2014. 

Over the last decade, it can be clearly seen that National parties could no longer neglect regional parties voicing their interests and aspirations. The increasing role of the regional parties in the making of India’s National and Foreign policy has been sharply felt by the centre on many occasions. The regional parties now strongly uphold the cause of Indian unity and integrity along with upholding their respective regional interests. They have also focused the attention of the people in remote areas on various political and economic issues and contributed to political awakening.

  The days when regionalism used to be viewed as a negation of nationalism or nation building have passed. The regional parties have provided a new dimension to the process of national integration and nation building. Since 1996, twenty-three regional parties have lent a hand to a national party by sharing power at the national level. Their outlook now appears to be changing from confrontationist and conflictual orientation to a tendency of co-operative bargaining in respect of Centre-State relations.

However, the coalition government suffers from some major drawbacks. It cannot resolve major problems since it requires agreement and support of various coalition partners. Moreover, the working of the government and administration is disrupted when different party leaders and critics bring in objections and difficulties frequently. 

After the emergence of regional parties and coalition politics, Centre-State relation has been a cause of tension. Since the days of inauguration of the Constitution, the relations were smooth primarily because they operated largely under the umbrella of one party dominance, both at the Centre and in the states. But since 1967, the interpretation of the various Articles in the Constitution connected with the federal system, and the way they are looked upon by various actors and parties in these areas, has created persistent tensions in the Centre-State relations.

Credits : Wikimedia

Recently, the Citizenship Amendment Act has triggered a variety of sentiments in the country. Even though the Bill was successfully passed in both the Houses of the Parliament, it saw its fair share of protests by various state leaders. Mamata Banerjee was the first chief minister to declare that her government would not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act in Bengal. The Shiv Sena, which recently shattered its 35-year-old ties with the BJP to form a government in Maharashtra with the Congress and the NCP, had taken a reverse turn on the CAA. Although in the beginning it voted in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha, after experiencing pressure from its new allies, the Shiv Sena stayed away from voting in the Rajya Sabha. 

Therefore, in the Indian political system, until there is a semblance of consensus between the state and the regional parties, chaos and disunity will prevail. National parties are now acutely certain of the fact that a single majority without coalition is not as big a possibility in the future as it was in the initial decades after independence. The last few decades have witnessed hung parliaments as becoming a permanent feature of the largest democracy with enduring impact. However, the real question is how can a country like India, with unity in diversity as its motto achieve cohesion, national security and peace with the dichotomous nature of coalition politics in the future.

Meghashree Dev
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