Can political instability be eliminated in India?

• Author: Indurthy, Rathnam

In the 1996 parliamentary elections, 590,000,000 Indians (65% of the eligible voters) went to the polls. As columnist William Safire points out, it was "the most breathtaking example of government by the people in the history of the world." They voted intelligently, peacefully, enthusiastically, and proudly demonstrating their faith in democracy, despite the fact that 40% of them are illiterate. By their splintered verdict, they created a hung parliament with no majority party to form a stable government.

The ruling Congress Party government, led by Prime Minister P.V. Narashimha Rao, notwithstanding a good economic performance under its stewardship, received a humiliating drubbing and ended up winning 136 seats out of 534 contested. This is the party of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Indira Gandhi, which governed India for 44 years after its independence in 1947.

The beginnings of a long winter of political instability started with the formation of a government by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which ended with the shortest tenure in India's history -- barely two weeks. That rapid demise was of its own making. Having won the largest number of seats, 193, the BJP and its allies staked a claim to head a government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee. Pres. Shankar Dayal Sharma conceded to this by appointing Vajpayee Prime Minister on May 10, with the proviso that he take a vote of confidence of the parliament before May 31.

On May 25, however, Vajpayee, a moderate leader known for his probity, integrity, and scholarship, resigned even before a vote of confidence was taken after failing to gain support for his government from any other political party. He needed the backing of another 104 members to remain in power, but could not get it because of the party's self-destructive, exclusivist, sectarian, and chauvinistic brand of Hindu nationalism that led to the BJP's isolation and political pariah status.

While most of India's political parties stress secularism as their core principle, emphasizing unity in diversity across all ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, the BJP advocates a divisive and communal ideology of Hindu cultural domination and nationalism. It demands that all other minority groups, especially the Muslims, who constitute the religion's second largest population (120,000,000) in the world after Indonesia, subordinate or assimilate themselves into Hindu culture.

The BJP ignores the fact that there is a cultural unity among all Indians, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or religion. The party is militantly anti-Muslim and advocates a uniform civil code for all religious groups with respect to marriage and divorce, doing away with the Muslim personal law (Shariah) guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. The party propagates the myth that Muslims enjoy special economic and social benefits and privileges. The BJP wants to do away with the special status the predominantly Muslim state of Kashmir enjoys under article 370 of the Constitution. Although the BJP calls for Hindu nationalism, it has done very little to dismantle the entrenched caste system and basically represents the upper-caste interests.

Although the party has won the largest number of seats to parliament by playing the religion card, the BJP continues to suffer from a pariah status as many secular political parties shy away from it. They blame it for the 1992 destruction of the Babri Mosque -- site holy to both Hindus and Muslims. This act ignited...