SOCIETY AND POLITICS

In India, the social factors and politics have got precariously mingled. Give arguments For and Against this view. India is the largest democracy in the world in terms of the number of its voters. In most of the democratic countries, many factors which are of national and international importance come to the fore during the elections and the political parties seek votes from the electorate on the basis of their ideas and stand on various such issues. There are healthy debates and the people decide about the party or the candidate to be voted on the basis of such debates and ideologies. Unfortunately, in India, though democracy has matured considerably, yet the basis on which the elections are fought have nothing to do with issues or ideologies. Arguments For the View (a) Though the Indian Constitution bars the caste system, yet even after more than six decades of independence caste considerations remain among of the most important considerations in the society, creating serious social problems. (b) There are several so-called secular and non-secular political parties in the country. But every party, at the time of selecting its candidates gives due consideration to the caste composition of voters in every constituency. In other words, caste continues to play an important role in selection of candidates as well as the perceived character of political parties. (c) The serious mingling of the politics with caste has created a serious social problem and has also resulted in persistence of caste-based divide in the society. Arguments Against the View (a) Group politics is witnessed by the countries all over the world and even in the developed democracies there are several pressure groups that influence the policy formulation by the government on many issues. There is nothing wrong in the practice of mingling the politics with caste system prevailing in India. (b) Indian democracy is a matured one and its voting patterns have been accepted by the world observers as among the most progressive ones. Indian electorate has shown immense maturity and people are not unduly influenced by the caste politics played by the political parties. (c) Every party has its own ideology and functions in pursuance of the mandate of its established ideology. The parties would continue to pursue their ideologies so long as their supporters approve of these. If the policies are unreasonable, the voters would reject the party concerned and such party would reorient its ideology. After all, it is the voter who determines the ideologies and is supreme in a democratic set up like ours.