Internal democracy

Chitta Baral

chitta@gmail.com Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005

I think the political system in India has not quite evolved yet. The democracy within a party is sorely lacking. No matter what party it is, it is not Delhi's (meaning the supremo in Delhi) business to dictate who should be the leader at a state level. But that is what is done. Delhi also decides who will run for MLA and MP in Kendrapra or Berhempur. Again that should not be Delhi's business. Until that changes anyone who disrespects the party supremo (or says negatively about her/him), no matter what party, has no chance to succeed in the party. They could be thrown out of the party. This is true for all Indian polotical parties, although there seem to be a little more (not a whole lot) internal democracy in BJP. This needs to change.

As an example, in the US, there are two main parties Democratic party and Republican party. Who will run for an elected office at any level is not decided by the party leader in Washington. There is a primary for both parties. In the Democratic primary several democrats run and registered democrats vote to decide who should be the democratic nominee. Different states have different rules on this. In some other states in the primary many people run, multiple ones from each parties. After that the top two vote getter have a contest. During the primaries most of the times the party leader of the state or the party leader in Washington normally do not openly support one candidate of their party over the others. (There are exceptions.)

I hope at some point India's political system will evolve to something like that.