In the name of federalism, India should not dilute, discount or deny the spirit and feeling of one India, one election, one tax, one ration card, one civil law etc. Unstable, coalition government formed by several tukde tukde gangs and also by congress party in the past (that follows dynastic politics, nepotism and corruption) has ruined India. Only from 2014 onwards India is fortunate to have a stable government and a decisive Prime Minister Narnedra Modi.
In the second term, Modi’s government must explore all possibilities to bring a strong law to prevent tukde tukde gangs forming coalition government and ruining India in distant future. The definition of national and regional political forces must be done soon with mathematical precision. The regional parties’ representation to contest an election for the parliament must be limited to 10% of the total number of seats of the parliament. Rest of the seats should be for the national parties to contest and not for regional parties.
Among the various regional parties in different states must come to a consensus as how many seats each party wants to contest out of the 10% allotted for regional parties. Only through such consultation and agreement, we can limit the dominance of regional parties at all India level. Regional parties play politics with the regional realities and are likely to have no national interest or vision. Imagine if such several regional parties come to power at the centre by forming a coalition government, India as a nation would suffer adversely and on the other hand even the national, international and other policies of India will be based on profit in politics rather by these regional parties than what is inevitable and necessary for the country.
Look at the scenario of DMK, JDS, SP, BSP, RJD, TMC, TDP etc., forming a government at the centre. All these parties are going to fight amongst each other and only way they can live in peace is by engaging in profit making activity than governance. When some of these regional parties by fueling regional chauvinism and hate politics may assume great political importance in the state and therefore defeating them even in the parliamentary election by a national party would be difficult. Therefore India would be either pushed to coalition politics or rule by several regional parties together with the support of a national party. Both situations would create instability, uncertainty and mal-governance.
In order to stop such situation in future, we must dilute the federal structure and must invoke the spirit and feeling of one India rather than one India composed several states with diverse practices and languages.
The above task may not be easy to achieve but if the national parties agrees, certainly even constitutional amendment can be easily achieved to save India from tukde tukde gangs.
Education, national security, health and other politics pertaining to national interest etc., must be under the full control of central government and the state government should not have any role in these aspects. The state government can have minimum freedom to set certain policies and other than that every programme/initiatives of the state government must be approved by the centre provided such initiatives perfectly sync with the national agenda of the union government.
In the name of constitution, federalism, democracy, democratic right etc., we should not let the governance and the vision of our nation to suffer by facilitating a government by tukde tukde gangs and regional forces. Instability, coalition politics, policy paralysis etc., we should not let hereafter to ruin our country. Unless we clip the wings of regional parties by reducing their representation in parliament to just 10%, we cannot make India a stable and development centric country.
Because of the regional politics these days, the mission of one India is taking back seat and as a result only politics prevail and nothing else. Probably the role of regional parties can be made significant in passing certain legislations but their presence must be reduced to 10% to prevent a coalition government by tukde tukde gangs in future.
The patriotic voice of India should be the centre of governance and not regionalism or identity politics. At global level and also in Indian expression ONE INDIA should be the primary and secondary identity of Indians and the nucleus of governance.
Government must look at the above possibility and must initiate/facilitate discussions, must find out modus operandi and only then we can safeguard our future.
Only a stable and decisive government can ensure stability and decisiveness of our country. Therefore government must see how the representation of regional parties can be reduced to 10% of the total strength of the parliament seats to build a New India that shall remain as one India with one soul, one heart, one head and one spirit called Indian. Our cultural identity–Hinduism also we must blossom to achieve universal love, brotherhood and tolerance among different communities in India. Let us be conscious and consciously dilute federalism, the necessary evil to save India.
S Ranganathan
