Regional parties retain their importance in national politics as Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalithaa score back-to-back victories, the BJP and the Left get a mixed bag, and the Congress fails to check its decline.
Three clear trends have marked the elections in India since 2014. The first is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the coalition that it leads, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), occupying centre stage in the national polity. The second is the sustained growth of regional political forces, challenging the dominance of the BJP-led NDA. The third is the growing marginalisation of India’s grand old party, the Congress, at the hands of the BJP and the regional parties.
In 2014, the BJP won the Lok Sabha election with a massive mandate. It followed up that triumph with Assembly election victories in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. It also managed to get a share of power in Jammu and Kashmir by working out a post-election alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). But this runaway success story was decisively challenged the next year. In 2015, first the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and later the Grand Alliance in Bihar—consisting of the Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress—inflicted resounding defeats on the NDA.The verdict of the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, showcased both these trends and the Congress’ decline.
In Assam, the BJP has come to power, the first time ever in a north-eastern State, albeit in alliance with local parties. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal retained power with massive mandates in an impressive display of the might of regional forces.
The Congress was routed in Assam and Kerala, the two States where it was in power before the elections. Its only consolation is the Union Territory of Puducherry, which it managed to wrest in alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
Denne historien er fra June 10, 2016-utgaven av FRONTLINE.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
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Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
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New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
