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Chandan Re: your rejoinder about the role of minorities in Indian politics.
You've raised a proper question which I think I am not prepared to answer it in all its ramification. The subject has been dealt with academically and may be pursued on the website. Minorities are playing a vital role in Indian politics wherever a single party has failed to rule with absolute majority. It is during a hung Parliament that the minorities can play their trump card effectively as it were by holding the prospective rulers to ransom. In governments formed with marginal majority in Parliament the threat of a break-up always looms large in the horizon since the parties today are so much torn with rivalry and aspirations within and outside the party. Look at the BJP in Assam which hopes to capture power in the near future. And look at the Congress Party in Assam which commands majority in the State legislature and yet from the very day Tarun Gogoi was sworn in office there have been attempts to throw him out either by his own colleagues, if not by the unhappy members of the minority groups. The minorities’ machinations within the party appear to be more serious than the political agitations mounted by the tribal, scheduled caste, Tea Estate labourers, and so on outside the legislature.. Politics is power-sharing. This power is exercised a by a small coterie of people called the Cabinet. From time to time we hear about a Cabinet within a Cabinet. These members called Ministers distribute the loaves and fishes of the State. They have enormous power. And since the Cabinet always includes representatives of the minorities, these Ministers have the taste of power which is known to be more stimulating than alcohol. The convention is that once a peoples’ representative becomes a Minister, he is supposed to work for the State rather than for his own constituents, the voters who elected him. In practice they (the Ministers) tend to serve their own community in various ways. As I said earlier as Members of the minority communities are invariably included in the Cabinet, a majority government also becomes some sort of a coalition. Mind you, depending on the circumstances the possibility of a member of the minority community becoming the leader or Chief Minister cannot be ruled out.. Bhuban |
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