B-2 Ch-9 Indian Politics: Trends - Revision Notes

 CBSE Class 12 Political Science

Revision Notes
Chapter-9
Recent Development in Indian Politics

  1.  During the decade of eighties, five developments took place in country with long lasting impact i.e. End of Congress system in 1980, Mandal Issues in 1990, New Economic Reforms in 1991, Ayodhya dispute in 1992 and Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
  2. Elections in 1989 led an era of coalitions with the defeat of Congress Party and it emerged several parties when no single party secured a clear majority of seats in any Lok Sabha election held since 1989 and in this era, regional parties played a crucial role in forming ruling alliances.
  3. Atal Behari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister during NDA goverments and his govenment formed in 1999 completed its full term.
  4. The nineties also saw the emergence of powerful parties and movements to represent the Dalits and backward castes as well as regional assertions. Now, there have been nine governments at the centre which have either been coalition government or minority governments supported by other parties or regional parties only.
  5. OBC : This refers to the administrative category 'other backward classes'.There are communities other then SC and ST who suffer from educational and social backwardness.These are also reffered to as 'backward castes'.
  6. The Mandal Commission : The Mandal Commission was set up to investigate the extent of educational and social backwardness among various sections of Indian society and recommend ways of identifying these 'backward classes'.The commission gave its recommendations in 1980.The commission did servey and found that these backward castes had a very low presence in both services.
  7. The Mandal Issue started with the national front government's decision to implement the recommendation of Mandal Commission that jobs in central government should be reserved for other backward classes leading to violent anti-mandal protest in country between supporters and opponents of OBC reservations.9 
  8. The constituents of Janata Party like Bharatiya Kranti Dal and the 'Samyukt Socialist Party' had a powerful rural base among some sections of the OBCs as well as BAMCEF, i.e. Backward and Minority Classes Employees Federation was formed m 1978 taking strong position in favour of political power to Bahujan-the SC, ST, OBCs and minorities. It resulted the rise of the (BSP) Bahujan Samaj Party under the leadership ofKanshi Ram.
  9. Hindutva literally means Hinduism defined by its originator V.D. Savarkar as basis of Indian nationhood to be members of Indian nation everyone must not only accept India as their fatherland 'Pitrubhu' but also as their hold land 'Punyabhu'.
  10. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) emerged under the leadership of Kanshi Ram.
  11.  Ayodhya Issue was started with the demolition of the Bahri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992 to symbolise various changes m politics and debates about Indian nationalism and secularism. These developments are associated with the rise of BJP and Politics of' Hindutva'.
  12. The Political processes after the 1990s, showed the emergence of broadly four groups of parties i.e. parties in coalition with Congress, parties in alliance with BJP, left front parties, others who are not part of the rest to make political competition multi-concerned.
  13. The Anti-Muslim Riots took place in the form of violence against Muslims through an incident at a station called Godhra 2002 when a bogey, full of Karsevaks was set on fire and suspected the hand of Muslims in it. Human Rights Commission criticised Gujarat government's role in failing to control violence and showed that government machinery also becomes susceptible to passion and alert us to dangers involved in using religious sentiments for political purposes.
  14. In the midst of severe competition and many conflicts, a consensus appears to have emerged among most parties consisting of main four elements, i.e. Agreement or new economic policies, acceptance of political and social claims of backward classes, acceptance of role of state level Parties in governance of country and emphasis on pragmatic considerations rather than ideological positions and political alliances without ideological agreement.
  15. In coalition government, several political parties cooperate reducing the dommance of any one party within that coalition. In it, government is formed on the basis of common minimum programme. The main reason behind this arrangement is that no party gets majority on its own in the Parliament. Coalition government is also created in the time of national crisis such as war time or economic crisis. If a coalition collapses, confidence vote is held or a motion of no-confidence is taken.
  16. Coalition government in context of India from 2004-2009 and 2009-2014 respectively:
    After the parliamentary elections in May 2014, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came into power with Mr. Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister. Although the BJP had got full majority on its own. At the national level, the first coalition government oflndia was formed under the Prime Ministership of Morarji Desai that existed from 24 March, 1977 to 15 July 1979 headed by the Janta party. This government could not complete its tenure. The first coalition government in India which successfully completed its 5 year term was the Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance with Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee as Prime Minister from 1999-2004. The other coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) consisted of thirteen separate parties from all over the country ruled for two terms successfully.