WgCdr Mahesh Chander Sudan (Retd)
We, the people of India, have been constitutionally authorized to participate in formation of Governments, both union and federal, at specific intervals after attaining age of 18 years through elections being held across the length and breadth of Indian Territory. India attained independence from English Empire on 15 Aug 1947 after a long struggle by freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives to break the chains of slavery. On attaining Independence, the people of India resolved to frame our own constitution that would enshrine the principles of Justice, Equity and Liberty without any consideration of caste, color, creed, sex, religion and region. The preambles of Indian Constitution declare India to be a sovereign, Socialist, Secular Democratic Republic that would ensure Justice, Equity and Liberty for the people. Articles 324 to 329 lay down various provisions for holding periodical elections to Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies in a desired free and fair manner. At the same time right to vote is a constitutionally established statutory right and it has been made clear by the Supreme Court of India in a recent judgement. The electoral journey of Independent Indian Republic commenced on 25 Oct 1951 and successfully formed own popular elected Government as per provisions of Indian Constitution on 17 Apr 1952.
As per Article 81 of the Indian Constitution, a total of 552 members are allowed in the Lower House that gets further assigned to States and Union Territories in accordance with the norms based on population of voters in the State/UT, however a total 530 members are allotted to states, maximum of 20 members to UTs and two seats are earmarked for nomination of members from Anglo Indian Community as provided in the Article 331. This brings the strength of Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) to 530+20+2= 552. Indian Parliament is a bicameral house that allows direct elections for members of Lower House (Lok Sabha) and through Electoral Collegiate to Upper House (Rajya Sabha) and the political party or a group of parties that enjoys majority mandate cast through direct elections forms Union Government and the party or group of parties with second large majority becomes the opposition in the Lower House of Parliament. On the same lines, the maiden Indian democratic Government was formed by Indian National Congress with PanditJawahar Lal Nehru as PM.
Looking at some noticeable features of First Lok Sabha, it had 489 seats with total 17.3 Crores eligible voters. Indian National Congress party won 364 seats, followed by Independents securing 37 seats, Communist Party of India winning 16 and Socialist Party raised a tally of 12 seats respectively. As regards percentage of votes secured by winning Indian Congress was 45% that fetched those 76% of the total contested 479 seats.
This electoral journey of Indian democracy has passed through many momentous points displaying mood of the electorates where most of the times majority mandate was cast on expected lines except for few turning points where it got affected by real time incidents that defeated single party mandate and gave birth to the concept of political alliance that allowed minority mandate to prevail. This ignited another fire challenging the democratic spirit of majority mandate and it allowed power to rest with minority mandate due to political coalitions of various parties through an arrangement of power sharing on mutually accepted common agenda points.
The history of Lok Sabha formation after 1952, first Parliamentary Elections, shows that Indian National Congress successfully secured majority mandate in Lok Sabha in succession till March 1977 when first time non congress dispensation was formed by Morarji Desai and Charan Singh with thin and fragile composition, it could not last full tenure of five years and elections for seventh Lok Sabha could not be avoided in the month of Jan 1980. Not only it became the first non-Congress Government but set an example of minority Government with Ch. Charan Singh as PM for 23 days, and only PM who did not face the Parliament due to withdrawal of support by Indian National Congress. This started a new trend in Indian Politics where formation of alliances erupted as the necessity of the time. However, the Indian National Congress once again rebounded with absolute majority and formed Governments in the seventh and eighth Lok Sabha.
This period of nine years witnessed assassination of two serving Prime Ministers of India and therefore it led to political uncertainty for some time. The formation of 9thLok Sabha on 02 Dec 1989 could not display a clear and comfortable mandate to any political party or group of parties and therefore compelled formation of government by the Janata Dal with the help of BJP and left parties. This fragile combination of political entities could not hold alliances for long and finally the house was dissolved premature on 13 Mar 1991. Likewise, the life span of Eleventh and Twelfth Lok Sabha suffered political transformation and consequently ended premature. The electoral journey of Indian democracy from 1977 till 1999 remained quite eventful due to political transformation across the spectrum giving space and public acceptance to new entrants like BJP and progressive withering away of few political entities due to ideological issues. This political fragility across the spectrum taught lessons to both electorates and electors and cautioned them to remain alert and apt for ensuring stability of political platforms to avoid premature dissolution of elected Government to nourish Indian Democracy.
Progressively, the Indian Democracy accepted the emergence of alliances, UPA [United Progressive Alliance and NDA [National Democratic Alliance) occupied the political landscape substantially and in succession enabling formation of Governments with comfortable majority to last full tenure of five years. The political stability helps to achieve healthy governance of public resources for state welfare but in democracy equally effective opposition is also must to keep the system in check for minimizing the chances of authoritarianism to grow and groom as being felt in the present context. The onus of responsibility here lies with the people of India who actually exercise mandate to rule and it certainly demands from each voter to rise above personal, political, regional and theological considerations and embrace national interest while performing this paramount constitutional obligation of casting mandate to form elected popular government.
It is in the right earnest to appreciate that the process of electioneering has already been set into motion by Election Commission of India and the stake holders especially the political parties create electoral fog to attract public mandate in their favor and to empower the voters for making right decision, it is the solemn responsibility of literate citizens to act with objectivity, help innocent voters to safeguard their mandate for most deserving candidates and caution them against the pitfalls being created by the political parties as fractured mandate to any political party would hurt the national interest and state welfare largely. At the same time, absolute mandate is also inimical to the spirit of democracy as it weakens the health of oppositionrequired to support the functioning of democracy. The supreme law of land, the Constitution of India, provides constitutional right to vote on the basis of Adult Suffrage and it calls for judicious use of this rarest of the rare opportunity allowed to all citizens of Indian Republic without any discrimination and each one of us must rise to shoulder the responsibility of forming our elected Government with required diligence for better tomorrow.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
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