Understanding Politics in India

For anyone who loves their country, an interest in politics is natural. However political commentary in India can be very “of the moment” and thus of transient value. This primer on Indian politics is an attempt to link to articles which provide a more conceptual understanding of aspects of politics in India including how political parties function, why voters may seem apathetic in the face of authoritarianism, and why institutions of democracy seem unable to maintain their independence. I will continue to link to new columns going forward

• The Political Process

  • The democratic political process in India is broken: All traditional sites of consensus-building — public discourse, civil society, and political parties — have evolved to structurally impede dialectical cooperation

  • Why the Indian public does not seem to care about Kejriwal’s arrest or Congress' bank accounts' freeze: There is no path to popular investment in democracy without fixing disenchantment with the political class

  • The Politics-Policy Disconnect in India: The excessive centralisation of power in party platforms and the head of the government has hijacked public interest, leaving no room to construct a majority on any issue outside of party lines

  • A Citizen's Wish From 2024: The erosion of good faith in our politics has led to a mindless zero-sum antagonism, where only the most partisan can thrive

  • Put the Public back into the Public Discourse: The imagination and collective life of a nation are defined in large part by its public discourse. We need to rescue India's conversation with itself from petty partisanship

  • The Politics of Fake News: We must address the underlying narrative instead of merely trying to rebut individual items of fake news

• Political Parties

  • Delhi New CM's Statement Highlights Indian Politics’ Core Dilemma: On the the dangers - to both the party and the top leader - of a political culture driven by sycophancy

  • How to Remake a Political Party: Political parties are not prisoners of history as popular analysis suggests

  • A Political Party is Not a Company: Drawing an analogy between political parties and companies is misleading and leads to distorted ideas of how parties function

  • What Can the Congress Learn From Pran Pratishtha of Ram Lalla at Ayodhya?: The need for political programs for mobilisation, community building and expression of one’s identity

• Anti-Defection law: 

  • The Hindu Parley (podcast) on the Anti-Defection Law: Achary, ex Secretary General, Lok Sabha and I spar over the anti-defection law

  • Scrap the Anti-Defection Law: Instead of providing stability, the law has undermined our democracy. It is time to scrap the anti-defection law

• Democracy in Political Parties

  • Going Beyond the Rhetoric of Democracy in Political Parties: While democracy at the level of the country is a bottom-up opportunity to change direction altogether, democratic accountability in a political party exists within an ideological framework

  • What does the Prashant Kishor model of politics mean for democracy? The IPAC model is predicated on undermining the party system

• Institutions of Democracy

  • Supreme Court is not a site for political battles: The Opposition must fight political battles in the court of public opinion

  • The return of Parliament as a forum for debate: With a strong Opposition, we have an opportunity to restore the vitality of our most important democratic institution. To achieve this, both the government and the Opposition must act in good faith

  • Institutional Independence Is About Distribution of Power Not Individual Virtue: The balance of power has outsized influence on how well “independent” institutions function in a democracy

  • Fragmentation of political power is key to institutional autonomy: At some threshold of consolidation of political power and Executive power, institutions are unable to withstand a predatory Executive and start collapsing

  • Lateral Entries and Modi Government’s Inability to Distinguish Between Civil Services and Political Appointments

• Liberalism in India

  • Video: Liberalism and Politics in India: In this #ScrollIdeas interview, I talk about some of my favourite topics: politics, Congress Party, political consultants, the anti-defection law, and of course, liberalism in India

  • Indian Liberalism’s Locus Must Shift From State To Society: Indian liberalism has so confined itself to the instruments of the State – state policy and state institutions – that it is unable to regroup around an alternate agenda in the social sphere

  • The Real Shocker of the 2019 Election: The real shocker of this election is how completely the liberals got the public mood wrong

• Congress Party

  • Three Things to Revive the Congress: What is important for the enduring revival of the Congress Party is its larger perception in the minds of the Indian people and how it builds organisation. For this, three things need to be done

  • Leaders not Lemmings: A political party must shape public opinion, not careen ideologically left or right based on public opinion

  • Where the Congress Faltered: The Party has become impervious to feedback and is thus unable to course correct

  • Hypothesis about Why Congress Lost 3 States but Won Telangana: Congress tends to flounder when confronted with a political campaign because it lacks a clear articulation of its own politics

• Key Debates and Themes in Contemporary Indian Political Analysis

  • Politics of Corruption: The big picture of electoral bonds is not their impact on cleaning up political funding but the endgame of BJP’s politics of corruption

  • Are Regional Parties Better at Fighting the BJP than the Congress? The regional parties need the Congress — as much as the Congress needs them — to provide a national counterpoint and ideological scaffolding for the united Opposition

  • Why Are Political Parties So "Reckless With Freebies"? Part of the answer has to do with the twin challenges of mass communication along with the ability to control execution of government schemes while in power

  • If Not Modi Then Who? The Real TINA is Not “If Not Modi Then Who” but “If Not Hindutva Then What”

  • SC-ST seats are not an indicator of SC-ST popularity: Some basic pointers on election analysis

  • Protests to Save Democracy

    • Indian Opposition Needs Organisation Not a Revolution: In a democracy, political power comes not from sporadic protests but from the ability to act in concert at important junctures. This requires organisation

    • What Next After the Protests: The [CAA] protestors have to decide how they want to engage with the political process: normative certitude delinked from political outcomes can lead to alienation from the democratic process itself

    • Opposition Must Pivot to a Positive Agenda: The role of the Opposition in a representative democracy is to provide an alternative, not just oppose

• Bhartiya Janta Party

  • Reining In Hate Vigilantes in BJP's Long-term Interests: BJP is at crossroads and must decide whether it will become more radically rightwing or should it moderate its pitch to try and appeal to a diverse electorate