India's Identity Crisis As Indian elections near, the nation struggles to define its government in the face of threats to its secular identity. Abid Imam |
The
main political parties in India have recently commenced
their election campaigns in anticipation of general
elections scheduled for later this year. The five-year
term of the 10th Lok Sabha (lower house) expires in July,
but Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao as expressed that
he will set the election date for April in order to
escape the sweltering summer heat. These elections are particularly crucial to India’s future. For the first time in the country’s 48-year history, India’s secular identity, initially propagated by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlala Nehru, and enshrined in the country’s constitution, faces a very serious challenge. The challenge comes from the present opposition part, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). |
The BJP unexpectedly emerged as a force to contend with in the Indian political arena in the last parliamentary elections in 1991, prompting Indians to question how secular their social fabric was. Eleven years ago, the BJP was a completely insignificant group with only two parliamentary seats.
In 1991, merely two elections later, the BJP captured 118 seats out of a total number of 544, second only to the Congress (I) party which claimed 271 seats and subsequently formed the government.1
The Congress (I) party, currently headed by Prime Minister Rao, has monopolized the reins of power for much of the nation’s post-colonial history, under the leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. It has only relinquished power through the polls twice before, to a coalition of leftist parties.
The National Front-Left Front Alliance, as the coalition is currently known, is the third major contender for a substantial block of seat in the upcoming elections. The leftist alliance included parties such as the Janata Dal, different factions of the Communists Party of India, and a number of regional parties.
Speculation regarding the outcome of the elections, by both laymen and political analysts has already reached a fever pitch. Most political clairvoyants do not predict a decisive victory for any one of the three parties. They foresee a hung parliament after which the large parties will furiously attempt to woo any non-aligned regional parties in order to patch together a majority large enough to form a government. Recent opinion polls, too, indicate the emergence of a hung parliament with none of the parties winning more than 200 seas. Such a prediction does not really bode well for the country, however, considering such coalitions usually prove to be tenuous and short-lived.
Scandalous Setbacks
Meanwhile, recent developments on the Indian political scene are heating up the election campaign. Each party is hoping to capitalize on any forthcoming information that would taint the image of rival parties. Any scandal faced by a party is considered virtual suicide at the polls.
A recent multimillion dollar bribery scandal, revealed in late January has provided opposition parties with the perfect opportunity to discredit the ruling Congress (I) party. Although the scandal involves dozens of high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from all three of the main parties, the main loser has been the Congress (I) party. The scandal has precipitated the resignation of three senior cabinet ministers. Among the other politicians to be indicted is L.K. Advani, president of the BJP. He has, however, shrewdly resigned from his seat in Parliament, denied all charges, and declared that he will not contest the imminent elections until he is exonerated of all charges in court.
Any scandal faced by a party is considered virtual suicide at the polls. |
"Both the Congress and the BJP are going to be harmed, but the Congress more than the BJP, because the charges are going to legitimize the popular perception that most Congress people, right from the top are corrupt," predicts Chanda Mitra, a former editor of the prominent Indian newspaper, The Hindustan Times.2 Indeed, this is not the first financial scandal to taint the Congress (I) party’s reputation. Before his assassination, Rajiv Gandhi, the former prime minister of India, was accused of taking more than US $30 million in bribes from Bofors, a Swedish arms company. |
Financial scandal aside, Prime Minister Rao earlier faced another embarrassing setback when the electoral commission overruled a recommendation by the government to hold elections in the strife-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir. Elections have not been held in the state lately, and the state is governed through Presidential rule. The electoral commission’s decision reflects that the Congress (I) government’s inability to resolve the problem in Kashmir.
This decision is quite damaging because it provides the BJP with the opportunity to further criticize the government for incompetence in Kashmir. The leadership of the BJP has very strongly and publicly chastised the government for not effectively dealing with the independence movement in Kashmir supported by its predominantly Muslim population. The BJP boasts that, if elected, it will ‘solve’ the problem of Kashmir. The BJP, known for its notorious anti-Muslim rhetoric, calls for transforming India into a Hindu nation, and was responsible for the demolition of the Babri Mosque, which prompted communal riots throughout the nation. The BJP is expected to exploit this setback to the Congress (I) party by appealing to nationalistic Hindus, who dismiss Nehru’s notion of a secular India.
| Religion, in India, is an incredibly sensitive and volatile issue, and communal riots are not infrequent. Eighty-three percent of India’s population is Hindu, while 12 percent of the population is Muslim.3 Relations between Hindus and Muslims have not been terribly amicable, especially since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. the nation of Pakistan was created as a homeland for the Muslims, as it was clear that Hindus and Muslims could not coexist peacefully. Although there was a mass exodus of Muslims from the Hindu-dominated provinces into the Muslim majority provinces that united to form Pakistan, a very substantial number of Muslims stayed on in India. | More setbacks, including further corruption scandals, are probably in the cards for each party. |
Today, there are over 120 million Muslims in India. Despite the substantial presence of minorities, the BJP believes that since India is the only country with a majority Hindu population, it ought to be a Hindu state. The BJP’s meteoric rise in the Indian political arena is a direct result of the growing, yet ominous, atmosphere of Hindu nationalism in the country.
But the BJP has not escaped without experiencing problems of its own. The party received a huge blow in early October after a revolt broke out in party ranks in Gujarat, a state harboring a BJP government. Later that month, in the most heavily populated state of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP saw the dissolution of the provincial legislature, just before the BJP planned to establish a government there.
Scandal has not spared the National Front-Left Front alliance in recent months either. One of the leaders of the coalition and a possible prime ministerial candidate, N.T. Rama Rao, was toppled as the chief minister of the southern section of Andhra Pradesh, in a rebellion spearheaded by his son-in-law.
Precarious Future
Keeping in mind that each party has faced some serious obstacles, it will be even more difficult for any party to emerge as the undisputed victor. More setbacks, including further corruption scandals, are probably in the cards for each party. Meanwhile, India’s secular identity maintains a precarious existence, which will only become more uncertain as the elections near. India has made the unrivaled claim of being the world’s largest democracy. Whether it can remain a democracy under the leadership of a nonsecular government is a crucial question which can be answered only after the upcoming elections.
| Notes: 1. Financial Times, November 17, 1995. 2. Burns, John F., International Herald Tribune, January 19, 1996. 3. The Daily Telegraph, September 1, 1995 |
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Mr. Imam, CC'98, is a history major at Yale College