Essays

India, one of the world's largest democratic countries, is a Union of 28 States and 7 Union Territories. The country is a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic with a Parliamentary system of government. The  Republic  is  governed  according  to  the Constitution inaugurated on January 26, 1950.

India was a dominion under the British colonial rule for a period of over 200 years till 1947. On August 15, 1947, India became independent after years of struggle, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, popularly known as the Father of the Nation. The Indian Constitution, the world's lengthiest constitution (with 395 articles and 12 schedules) was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26^th November 1949 and came into force on 26th January 1950. The Constitution created a Sovereign Democratic Republic which was officially named 'Bharat' that is India, a Union of States.

India is a federal system, a system of government in which power is divided by a constitutional arrangement between national and local units of government. The Constitution provides detailed lists of division of the legislative powers between Central and Slate government. The residual powers of legislation remains with the Union.

India has the biggest number of people with franchise rights and the largest number of political parties, which take part in election campaign- In the 2009 General Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha, 406.9 million voters actually voted out of 714 million eligible voters and an average of 15 candidates competed for each of the 543 territorial constituency seats.

Elections are held at different levels. The two major election levels are at national level, after which the national government is established and at the state level, after which the state governments are established. Elections are also held for city, town and village councils. In the 2009 General Elections, the UPA was able to put together a comfortable majority with support from 322 members out of 543 members of the House. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a ruling coalition of center-left political parties heading the government of India. The seeds of coalition governance were sworn for the first time in 1989, until then a single party rule of Congress dominated the political landscape at the Centre.

The coalition is led by the Indian National Congress |INC), which is currently the single largest political party in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the parliament of India).

Though in the 2004 elections. 335 members supported the UPA, as opposed to 322 in 2009, however, in the 2009 elections UPA alone had a plurality of over 260 seats as opposed to 218 seats in the 14th Lok Sabha. Hence the government emerged to be more stable than the previous one. External support came from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and other minor parties. Besides Congress, other political parties in India are the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP—Indian People's Party), the Janata Dal (People's Party), the Samajwadi Party (Socialist Party), and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP-Party of Society's Majority) which attempts to ascend to power on the crest of an alliance of interests uniting Dalits, Backward Classes, Scheduled Tribes, and religious minorities.

There are different political issues in Indian politics. Some are of national level and some of regional levels. Some communities just demand more economical and social rights for their communities. While others demand more autonomy for their cultures within the Indian States. With all its problems, India survives as a single state with democratic character. But a number of political problems still exist and remain unsolved in India. On 22 May 2009. Manmohan Singh was sworn in as the Prime Minister at the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Apart from being the Head of the Union (Federal) Government. Prime Minister is also in-charge of the Ministries not specifically allocated to the charge of any Minister like Ministry of Personnel. Public Grievances & Pensions; Ministry of Planning; Ministry of Railways; Department of Atomic Energy; and Department of Space. INC's President, Sonia Gandhi, serves as the Chairwoman of the UPA.

The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers are drawn from members of the UFA. Other important cabinet ministers are Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of Finance; Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries; A. K, Antony, Minister of Defence; R Chidambaram, Minister of Home Affairs; S.M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs and Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development and Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

Formation of coalition governments reflects the transition in Indian politics from the national parties to the creation of smaller, more narrowly-based regional parties. This process has been underway throughout much of the past decade and is likely to continue in the future. With more than 714 million registered voters in 2009, India has often been called "the world's largest democracy". Today, politics in India is characterized by governments of precarious coalitions, weakened political institutions and political activism» The politics of caste and religion too is rampant in Indian politics. Elections are held/ contested and won on the sole criteria of religion and caste. Due to the selfish interests of the power hungry parties, strong regional and religious lines have been developed which hamper the unity and integrity of the nation. The vile political leaders often get away due to the gullibility of the innocent public who gets easily swayed by false religious and racial pretentious of the greedy leaders. This kind of tendency is not a healthy sign for Indian polity. We need to check this growing tendency of regional, religious and caste politics where the common man is used as an instrument to achieve the selfish ends of the politicians.

Political awareness should be created among the masses and this can be done by imparting the right kind of education and also inspiring the youth to join the politics. Both the tasks are great challenges, as the youth seems to be totally disillusioned by the way the Indian political system works and how education till date has failed to achieve the desired ends. Yet, the situation is not as bleak as one imagines it to be. Things are gradually changing with the way political parties are realizing the need of change of leadership from the old to the young. Many leading parties are now gradually opening up to the young generation and even the public response to them seems to be overwhelming. Moreover, the voter of today is not as naive as before. The results,, of the past few general elections have taught the parties that the public answers and avenges their grievances during the time of elections. All we need is to persistently pursue the path of change through constitutional means and refrain from electing corrupt leaders of criminal background. We also need to promote free and fair elections. The latest instance of the elections held in Bihar in 2006 can be cited. The process seems to have begun. There are many flaws that are still remaining and a lot needs to be done. But a beginning has been initiated, all we need is to continue to travel on the road to development, education and awareness in order to stabilize and develop a mature polity in the country.