Polsc.docx

COALITION GOVERNMENT

DR. RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

Academic Session: Session: 2015-16 2015-16 Political Science: Project Coalition Government SUBMITTED BY:

RISHI SEHGAL

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

Dr. MONIKA SRIVASTAVA

ROLL NO: 115

FACULTY OF ARTS

SECTION ‘B’

DR. RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA

B.A. LLB (Hons.), SEMESTER I

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

SIGNATURE OF STUDENT

SIGNATURE OF PROFESSOR


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted Dr Monika Srivastava for her guidance and constant supervision and also for being a great source of inspiration and encouragement

I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents for being there for me always as a support system and motivation givers.

My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleagues in developing the project and people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities.


Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2: COALITION GOVERNMENT ......................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 3: COALITION GOVERNMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD .............................. 6 CHAPTER 4: COALITION GOVERNMENT IN INDIA ........................................................ 7 CHAPTER 5: HISTORY OF COALITION GOVERNMENT ................................................. 9 CHAPTER 6: DEVELOPMENT OF COALITION GOVERNMENT IN INDIA .................11 CHAPTER 7: DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL PARTIES IN INDIA .............................. 13 CHAPTER 8: MERITS AND DEMERITS ............................................................................. 15 CHAPTER 10: CRITICAL REVIEW ..................................................................................... 17 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................ 18 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 20


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant. It can possibly be described as a joining of 'factions', usually those with overlapping interests rather than opposing.

The term ‘coalition’ is derived from the Latin word ‘coalitio’ which is the verbal substantive of coalesce which means to grow together. However, as actually used, it somewhat belies it nominal meaning, for the units or the elements brought into combination by a coalition very seldom grow together in any literal sense. According to the dictionary meaning coalition means an act of coalescing, or uniting into one body: a union of persons, states: alliance. In the strict political sense the word coalition is used for ‘alliance or temporary union into a single government of distinct parties or members of distinct parties.

In general, the term coalition means temporary combination of groups or individuals formed to pursue specific objectives through joint action. The term coalition is most often used in connection with political parties. Coalition governments, which are frequently found in multiparty countries like India, France, Italy, and many other countries of the world, are formed when no single party is strong enough to obtain an electoral majority. The resulting government usually distributes political posts to representatives of all coalition members. 1

The project shall give a brief analysis of coalition governments in India. Chapter 2 shall define the term Coalition Government in detail. The next chapter shall focus on the coalition government formed across the world. Chapter 4 will describe the Coalition governments in India. Chapter 5 shall describe the history of Coalition government with respect to India. Chapter 6 will trace the Development of Coalition Governments. The next chapter will

1

Pandey A.K, Coalition politics in India: Prospects & problems, Volume i , issue 12 International research journal , September 2010


describe the Development of Regional Parties in our country. In Chapter 8 will Merits and Demerits will be discussed. The next chapter will be a Critical analysis of the project and then a Conclusion shall be drawn.

CHAPTER 2: COALITION GOVERNMENT

One of the forms of government is Parliamentary Democracy. The defining feature of a parliamentary democracy is the fact that the executive derives its mandate from and is politically responsible to the legislature. In multi-party democracies, this implies that government selection is usually not determined by an election alone, but is the outcome of a bargaining process among the parties represented in the parliament. Furthermore, it implies that the government may terminate at any time before the expiration of a parliamentary term if it loses the confidence of the parliament.2

A coalition government is one in which several political parties must cooperate to run a country or region. These types of governments are often considered somewhat weak because there is no majority party. In such cases, the only way that policy gets approved is by each side making concessions.

This type of government, which might also be known as a coalition cabinet, can be one of the most entertaining — and volatile — forms of government. Often, it might be difficult to know how an issue is going to turn out, unlike in some countries where there are two major political parties. In those cases, it is rare when a majority party does not get its way.

Well-known countries that have been run by coalition governments include Germany, Italy, India, Ireland and Israel, among others. After a parliament is seated in these countries, the difficult work of bridging gaps begins. In some cases, these gaps are bridged more easily than 2

Daniel Diermeiera, Hulya Eraslanb, Antonio Merloc; Coalition governments and

comparative constitutional design, European Economic Review 46 (2002)


in others, because several parties might be in agreement on some issues. In other cases, where there is little agreement, building a coalition takes time. Some people believe that a coalition government is inefficient. In some cases, it might also increase the risk of underhanded deals and increase corruption, because more politicians could be willing to make deals to get things accomplished. A coalition government also can have members who are very argumentative, even more so than other forms of government, simply because so much is at stake. A Coalition Government might also be created in a time of national difficulty or crisis, for example during wartime, to give a Government the high degree of perceived political legitimacy. Cabinets based on a coalition with majority in parliament, ideally are more stable and long-lived than minority cabinets while the former are prone to internal struggles, they have less reason to fear votes of non confidence. Sometimes grand coalitions of two large parties also occur, but these are relatively rare and large parties usually prefer to associate with small ones.3

CHAPTER 3: COALITION GOVERNMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD Coalition governments are frequently found in multiparty countries like India, France, Italy, and many other countries of the world, are formed when no single party is strong enough to obtain an electoral majority. The resulting government usually distributes political posts to representatives of all coalition members. A Coalition Government might also be created in a time of national difficulty or crisis, for example during wartime, to give a Government the high degree of perceived political legitimacy. Coalition Governments usually does not appear in countries in which the cabinet is chosen by the executive rather than by a lower house, such as in the United States. However, in semi presidential systems such as France, where the president formally appoints a prime minister but the government itself must still maintain the confidence of the parliament, coalition governments occur quite regularly. 3

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-coalition-government.htm#didyouknowout(Accessed on August 26, 2015)


Cabinets based on a coalition with majority in parliament, ideally are more stable and longlived than minority cabinets while the former are prone to internal struggles, they have less reason to fear votes of non confidence. Sometimes grand coalitions of two large\ parties also occur, but these are relatively rare and large parties usually prefer to associate with small ones\ (though currently the governments of both Israel and Germany include the two largest parties). However, if none of the larger parties can receive enough votes

to form their

preferred coalition, a grand coalition might be their only choice for forming a government. In many democratic countries, such as Germany, France, India, Israel and Italy, government by a coalition of political parties is considered normal. Often in such countries there are many political parties with a significant level of popular support in elections.

In other states, such as the UK, USA and Japan, there are fewer significant political parties and coalitions are rare, as after an election a winning party is able to form an effective government without any help from others. This debate is closely related to issues of voting reform, as countries with some form of proportional representation tend to have more political parties in parliament than those that use a first-past-the-post system.4

CHAPTER 4: COALITION GOVERNMENT IN INDIA It is by now axiomatic that India is a vast, complex and plural polity with disparate groups struggling to coexist and achieve a measure of cohesion and national integration. Even a large district in India is bigger than half the nations of the world. Several of the larger states in the country are bigger than 90 percent of the nations of the world. Uttar Pradesh would probably rank as the fifth biggest nation in the world, if it were to be independent.

In addition, given the linguistic diversity, political fragmentation of society, the uneasy coexistence of several layers of India from the middle ages to the 21st century and the Pandey A.K, Coalition politics in India: Prospects & problems, Volume i , issue 12 International research journal , September 2010 4


enormous immobility of the bulk of the Indian population, there is no other nation on earth that can really be compared to modern India .5

It truly seems that era of a single parry dominating the polity is over. The last clear mandate in favour of a single party was in 1984 Lok Sabha elections. Every single election since 1989 has strengthened this theory- that coalition governments are here to stay in our country. The

multi-party coalitions formed since

1990’s in India

are

regarded as a

kind of accommodative politics with all varieties of parties coming together in coalition. This transition from a single party to multiparty is neither temporary nor an aberration.

India has had coalition governments at the Centre as well as in individual states since the last two decades. Since India is a diverse country with different ethnic, linguistic and religious communities, it also has diverse ideologies. Due to this, the benefit that a coalition has is that it leads to more consensus based politics and reflects the popular opinion of the electorate. The noted constitutional authority, Durga Das Basu wrote that Constitution of India is basically federal, but of course with striking unitary features. According to Nani Palkivala, Indian Constitution provides for a cooperative federalism among states with a bias in favour of the Centre. He was of the view that if the Constitution is used in the right spirit, there would be no need to consider any amendment as far as centre-state relation is concerned. He further said that the problem to-day is in an acute form because over a period of years the Centre has acted in a manner in which at best has been contrary to the spirit of the Constitution. The conflict that occurs in the Indian Federal process is due to the conflict between party in the power at the Centre and the parties in opposition to it which control some of the states. In all federal system, and, in particular, what is called polyethnic unions there is a conflict of values between those of the nation and the sub nations which constitute the Union..

The recent cash-for votes issue that erupted in Parliament, and widespread media coverage about the kinds of ‘deals’ that have been struck with various allies to get support for the 1. 5

http://www.academia.edu/3391236/Coalition_Government_in_India._NDA_Vs_UPA

(Accessed on August 26, 2015)


India-US nuclear agreement, Rail Budget, FDI in retail, Sri lanka issue and many more have only reinforced our concerns about tenuous nature of coalition politics.

Reasons for Coalition Politics in India are:

1. Growth of Regional Political Parties: Growth of regional parties has been reason for the emergence of coalition politics in India

2. Inability to Represent India’s diversity: Coalition politics also thrives because of the inability of national parties to continue to give a feeling to the diverse population in India that they are able to adequately represent their disparate interests. 3. Loss of Trust: The tendency of the national parties to speak of national level issues, and to force coherence in the politics and views on issues, is at odds with our extremely diverse population. In the initial years, to the ext ent that the Congress party was able to accommodate regional/ local interests and reflect their aspirations, it was possible to maintain a large single party identity. But over the years, regional and caste identities have begun to increasingly assert themselves in the political space. 4. The moral degeneration in politics : Combined with regional parties’ ability provide credible alternatives to the Congress party in the states, led to a situation, where ‘horse trading’ became relatively common in unsettling state governments. The brazen manner in which political parties traded MLAs led to the passage of the anti defection law in 1985. 6

CHAPTER 5: HISTORY OF COALITION GOVERNMENT Indian Constitution provided for a federal system of governance in the country where the provinces had fairly enough autonomy. While the Congress Party had a nation-wide appeal so far as forming the government at the Centre, people often gave due credence to regional 6

www.upscportal./comcivilservices/article/coalition-politics-future-of-indian-political-system( Accessed on August 26, 2015)


political formations in the governance of their respective provinces. Voting pattern was unusual in the sense that the people who voted for Congress in the Lok Sabha elections would not necessarily vote for the same party in the assembly elections. No wonder, there was fractured verdict in a number of states even when the Congress Party had a clear mandate at the Centre. It is interesting to see how fractured verdict facilitated formation of coalition governments in various parts of the country during 1952-1966. 7

India has had coalition governments at the centre as well as in the states since the last two decades. Coalition governments are not a new phenomenon in India. Since 1967, 60 coalition governments have functioned in Indian polity. On an average, these governments lasted for 26 months. However, the communist coalition government in West Bengal has lasted for more than 25 years.

In the wake of the decline of Congress Dominance, the fragmentation of the National Party System and the emergence of party systems at the regional level have turned India into a chequered federal chessboard. The past and likely future patterns of coalition governments in India are suggestive of at least three models of power sharing:

(a) Coalition of more or less equal partners, e.g. the National Front and the United Front,

(b) Coalition of relatively smaller parties led by a major party, e.g.National Democratic Alliance;

(c) Coalition of relatively smaller parties facilitated but not necessarily led by a prime minister from the major party, e.g. the coalition of parties formed in 2004

India has witnessed coalition governments of three major muted hues: (a) middle of- the-road Centrist Congress Minority Government of P.V. Narsimha Rao, going against its Left Centre of reputation, initiated neo-liberal economic reforms in 1991;

7

Kailash K.K., Coalitions: Permanent instability or reinforcing democracy


(b) three Left-of-centre governments formed by the Janata-Dal-le d National/United Front; and (c) two Right-of-Centre coalition governments formed by the Bharatiya Janata Part y-led National Democratic Alliance under Atal Behari Vajpayee, a votary of secular version of Hindu nationalism. 8

CHAPTER 6: DEVELOPMENT OF COALITION GOVERNMENT IN INDIA The first coalition government headed by V.P.Singh was a great failure. Again the congress came to rule. The 1989-91 period of coalition saw nothing like happy consensuses emerge. Instead we had the Mandal Commission and the Rath Yatra. Far from becoming united India tore itself apart. Even so liberal commentators continued to sing the praises of coalition politics. When the NDA coalition took office, we were assured that the BJP's lat ent communalism had now been checked and those giants of secularism as George Fernandes would restrain the Hindu fanatics. But nothing of this sort could be seen. Such experiences prove that coalitions tend to work against India's interest. The big advantage claimed for coalition politics- that it leads to moderation and consensus-is entirely illusory. And all the obivous disadvantages-the squabbling for births, the slow pace of decision making, the absence of a clear ideology etc.- far out way any possible advantages. Much worse, these days is the nature of the parties that any coalition will have to contain. The sad truth is that nearly any party in India today is built not around ideology but around the personality of a single leader or a family dynasty. In some cases the leader's charisma is reinforced by caste calculation.

Pandey A.K, Coalition politics in India: Prospects & problems, Volume i , issue 12 International research journal , September 2010 8


Every party is based on charisma and family. Few, if any, of these parties actually believe in anything. A nearly every case there is no inner party democracy. No new leaders will ever emerge from their ranks. Success and succession are decided only by birth. When we talk of coalition politics of the centre we are not really talking about a coalition of such parties as the Congress, the BJP or the CPM. To reach the majority figure, every coalition must include M.P.'s from several of these parties, many of whom will have to be made minister. Thus it does not matter how much one party hates another, how much one support the other's ideologies. The only concern for them is that how many MPs the party has. None of this can be good for India. As our polity fractures into regional dynasty and caste-based parties, all Central Governments have to bow to the demands of these regional dictators, their sons, their cronies and their criminal friends. Most coalition governments in India at the union or state levels have tended to be rickety, unsuitable, incoherent and weak. In vast plural societies, coalition governments are both inevitable and desirable. However, the success of a coalition government depends on several key factors. Strong party loyalties and legislators’ respect for people’s mandate are absolutely essential for the survival and stability of an honest coalition. But, the Westminster model adopted by us recognises executive power only by legislative majorit ies acquired by means of fair or foul, often without reference to the public opinion or the people’s mandate. As people’s mandate and power are easily divorced, the rulers are increasingly obsessed with survival in power at any cost.

The resultant distortions have made a mockery of our parliamentary system and severely undermined the legitimacy of authority and effectiveness of executive functioning. In the period between 1967 - 73, it is estimated that there were about 2200 defections by legislators and in various states. Considering that the total number of legislators at the state level is a little over 4000, and that defections during that period were confined largely to the northern states, the numbers of defections is staggering. The recent episodes in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat


and many other states do not need any elaboration. In such a climate, stability of governments, and coherence of governance would be the natural casualties. 9

CHAPTER 7: DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL PARTIES IN INDIA Ever since the decline of Congress became apparent, two features of Indian politics have attracted the attention of students of Indian political process. One is the coalition-based structure of party politics and the other is the rise of many smaller and regional parties to prominence in national level politics. Even a casual observer will not miss these features, which emerged in the nineties. What is remarkable about these features is that Congress was not / is not being replaced by any single party. Thus, a wide range of regional formations has become the centrepiece of the emerging party system

Often, a party is easily identified as a ‘ regional ’ party if it propagates the ideology of regionalism or thrives on invocation of regional pride. Parties like Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) or Telugu Desam Party (TDP) or Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) are quickly recognized as regional parties.

These are parties, which enjoy considerable support only in one state of the Indian union. Such parties may not emphasize their regionalist outlook. They have, in fact, an all- India perspective but only a regional reach. Forward Block (FB) and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) in West Bengal or Peasants’ and Workers’ Party (PWP) in Maharashtra may be cited as examples.

The nineties have witnessed the rise of such parties in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In fact, together with the ‘regionalist’ parties, these parties are also playing an important role in the political developments that unfolded in the nineties.

9

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan , Federalism

experience.

and coalition governments the indian


Yet another point deserves mention. Observers of Indian politics often accept, even though grudgingly, that ‘regional’ party and their leaders have a somewhat legitimate claim over power structures at the local and state level. But, these leaders are not supposed to stake claims to power at the all-India level. Mention of state leaders aspiring for national level power is frequently made with a pinch of cynical censure. Words like local subedars, regional satraps, etc. are found not only in journalistic vocabulary but also in the lexicon of scholarly political analyses. It betrays a bias against regional parties and regional leaders.

We shall proceed with the simple test of popular – electoral support. When a party is practically confined to only one state, it may be treated as a regional party even if its leaders nurse all-India ambitions or its nomenclature declares the party to be all-India. Thus understood, the Trinmul Congress (TC), Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samata Party, would be treated as regional parties along with self- proclaimed regionalist parties. We shall exclude from our discussion of regional parties, the two Communist parties and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). It is often pointed out that CPI (M) has been confined only to West Bengal and Kerala and CPI is, in any case, a small party now. But CPI (M) has a presence in Assam, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Tamil Nadu (TN) while CPI has also some base in AP, Bihar, Punjab and TN. In the case of BSP, its base in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), (4.8 per cent in 1999), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Punjab, and Rajasthan, justifies our exclusion of this party from the category of regional parties.

10

The rise of regional parties is seen by scholars as related to democratization in three respects. It has been argued that the politics in the nineties is characterized by a democratic upsurge involving greater participation by women, tribals, Dalits, lower castes and the rural voters. Regional parties are seen as carries of this democratic upsurge11 Secondly, the issue of regional parties is seen in the context of federal polity. It is argued that established opinion has always seen regional parties and regionalism with suspicion because the Congress system 10

Suhas palshikar , R egional Parties and Democracy : Romantic Rendezvous Or Localized Legitimation? 11

Yadav Yogendra, Reconfiguration in Indian Politics: State Assembly Elections 1993-1995, Economic and Political Weekly, 13-20 Jan., 1996; p.100.


of politics placed heavy emphasis on nation as the unit of political action rather than the states. However both on grounds of plurality and democratic principle, federalization of the polity has been seen as a positive development. It is further argued that although regional parties are not self-consciously working in the direction of rewriting centre – state relations, this is precisely what will result from their attempts to diminish centre’s powers over state. The third dimension is related to the discourse shift taking place in Indian politics. It is said that rise of regional parties suggests that established discourse on nation and nation-building is being challenged.12

CHAPTER 8: MERITS AND DEMERITS

MERITS 1. The coalition government addresses the regional disparity more than the single party rule.

2. Coalition government is more democratic, and hence fairer, because it represents a much broader spectrum of public opinion than government by one party alone.

In almost all coalitions, a majority of citizens voted for the parties which form the government and so their v iews and interests are represented in political decision making. 3. Coalition government creates a more honest and dynamic political system, allowing voters a clearer choice at election time. It is also easier for parties to split,

or new ones to be formed, as new political issues divide opinion, because new parties still have a chance of a share in political power.

12

http://theviewspaper.net/coalition-government-and-democracy/(aCCESSED on September 27, 2015)


4. Coalitions provide good government because their decisions are made in the interests

of a majority of the people .A coalition government better reflects the popular opinion of the electorate within a country . 5. Coalition government provides more continuity in administration . A more

consensual style of politics also allows for a more gradual and constructive shift of policy between administrations. 6. Such government functions on principle of politics of consensus . Besides, states are

given more powers, and the base of concept of federalism is strengthened. 7. Government will be more consensuses based: resulting policies will be broadly approved of for the benefit of the nation. 8. Better representation of the electorate’s wishes. Better quality of policy: enhanced scrutiny and increased attention paid to each policy 9. Increased continuity: election does not lead to dramatic overhaul which can produce

fragmented rule 10. Yet instability apart, coalition governments have been effective in enhancing democratic legitimacy, representativeness, and national unity . DEMERITS: 1. Coalition government is actually l ess democratic as the balance of power is inevitably held by the small parties who can barter their support for concessions from the main groups within the coalition.

2. Coalition government is less transparent. It is b ecause a party has no real chance of

forming a government alone, the manifestos they present to the public become irrelevant and often wildly unrealistic. 3. Coalitions provide bad government because they are unable to take a long term view.


4. Coalition governments are very unstable, often collapsing and reforming at frequent intervals – Italy, for example, averages more than one government per year

since 1945. This greatly restricts the ability of governments to deal with major reforms an d means that politicians seldom stay in any particular ministerial post for

long enough to get to grips with its demands. 5. Coalition governments are definitely far less effective, not durable, and nondependable as compared to the governments formed by any one party with a definite

ideology and principles. 6. In coalition governments, MLAs and MPs from all the parties are given portfolios/ministries and appointed as Ministers . These ministers are appointed on

the recommendations of the parent party, without taking the qualification, character and criminal /clean record of the MLAs and MPs.

CHAPTER 10: CRITICAL REVIEW Governing the largest democracy in the world isn’t a simple task. The role of the legislature in governing this democracy is more inclusive than the other pillars of democracy as it empowers the common man.

The future of India may look bright in terms of the demographic dividend, the affluent middle class, the knowledge capital so on and so forth. But it i s equally gloomy too. With 27% of the population struggling for their next meal, the global economic turmoil and the marginalized sections facing the heat, the mismanagement of natural resources, power shortage, the climate change issues affecting the life chances of many, the nation is at the crossroads of development. All these issues are intricately connected to the next government that assumes power and the agenda it follows. Evidently, this cannot be achieved unless the parties move away from divisive vote bank politics and parochial political agendas and concentrate more on the development agenda. Unarguably, this is one of the most crucial elections in the history of free India, one which could very well redefine India’s position in the global stage. A stable government with a strong political will is the need of the hour.


The Goal of the Coalition Government should be to pool the resources of different p arties that can be used as unifying force. Instead of being a ‘mockery of democracy’ it should be the platform with human face. We should inculcate values from Australia and Canada that have made remarkable progress even during the phase of coalition era. Alliance rule in West Bengal is a good example of mutual understanding and cooperation of coalition politics. At last, we can say that coalition form of government is a compulsion not a persuasion.

Federal coalitions have over time institutionalized sophisticated coordination and management mechanisms that have not only helped take care of relations between political parties but also issues of governance.

CONCLUSION

Federal coalitions have enabled multiple diversities including regional, religious, caste, linguistic and cultural to not only be represented at the centre but have also given them access to exercising power. In a way, it plays an int egrating role bringing together different sections of a diverse polity. It is in the light of this background, that coalitions are

seen as being more representative where they are a power-sharing device intended to accommodate multiple territorially based identities.

Here coalitions are seen as an institutional solution to mitigating problems of diversity in heterogeneous societies. They are not merely seen as a form of government arising in a multiparty competitive situation, but as a democracy reinforcing solution that increases representativeness and makes governments more inclusive.

Various different ethnic, linguistic, and religious communities, it also has diverse ideologies. Due to this, the benefit that a coalition has is that it leads to more consensus based politics and reflects the popular opinion of the electorate .


In order to have stable coalitions, it is necessary that political parties moderate their ideologies and programmes. They should be more open to take others point of view as well. They must accommodate each other’s interests and concerns. In India, parties do not

always agree on the correct path for government policy. Different parties have different interests and beliefs and it is difficult to sustain a consensus on issues when disagreement arises. However, this is not to say that we have never had successful coalitions.

The need of the hour is to build a National Platform of credible Indians in all walks of life with proven record of service, commitment to democratic values and good governance, and public recognition at various levels. This National Platform must fight for common

goals around which there is broad consensus, and build a national network with at least one branch in every district in the country. Such a National Platform with the participation and leadership, of Indians; fighting for goals which are acceptable to most; and building a local network accessible to the concerned citizens facilitating their participation, will encourage people to spare their surplus energies, time, talent and resources for the cause of national rejuvenation.

Given the Indian crisis today and the mood of the people, such a national movement seeking a referendum on the reform agenda will achieve undoubted success in a few years’ time. As someone said, there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come . This is the time for holistic reform of our governance structure; to build a strong, democratic, selfgoverning India; with all its citizens enjoying peace, freedom and harmony. History beckons us.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Pandey ,Dr. A.k, Coalition Politics in India:Prospects and Problems , International Research Journal, Vol 1, Issue 12, 2010. 2. Narayan ,Dr. Jayaprakash Federalism and Coalition Governments, The Indian Experience, Young Liberals Convention, 1997 3. Divided we Stand- India in a time of Coalitions by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Shankar Raghuraman 4. Kailash K.K., Coalitions: Permanent instability or reinforcing democracy 5. Coalition Politics: The Indian experience by N. Jose Chander

6. Daniel Diermeiera, Hulya Eraslanb, Antonio Merloc; Coalition governments and comparative constitutional design, European Economic Review 46 (2002) 7. http://www.academia.edu/3391236/Coalition_Government_in_India._NDA_Vs_UPA ( accessed on August 28 , 2015) 8. http://indianblogger.com/coalition-government-an-indian-experience/(Accessed on August 22, 2015) 9.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-coalition-government.htm#didyouknowout(Accessed on September, 2015)

10. www.upscportal./comcivilservices/article/coalition-politics-future-of-indian-political-system( Accessed on September 26, 2015)

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