Politics in India
Famous Greek thinker, Aristotle defines politics as the study of the city-state. It is concerned with improving the well-being of all the citizens in the nation. Politics refers to the art and science of government concerned with the regulation and governance of the country. A person who professionally holds the office of the government by way of elections and is actively engaged in politics is known as the Politician. (Ramnath Kovind,2017)
India was colonized by Britain for several centuries. Post its Independence in 1947, India enforced its constitution in 1950. The Indian Constitution to some extent reflects the theory of separation of powers. The three-separate entity of the government are the executive, legislature and judiciary. President is the ceremonial head of the executive branch and safeguards the constitution. Prime Minister is appointed by the President and is the head of the parliament for all practical purposes. Parliament is the supreme law-making body in India. It has a bicameral federal parliamentary system (Avijit Gosh,2017). Rajya Sabha or the council of states (upper house) consists of 250 members and Lok Sabha or the house of people (lower house) consists of 552 members. Judiciary consists of supreme court, court of appeal, High court disputes tribunal. It is independent and subordinate to the parliament. India is the seventh largest democracy. It is a captivating country of many religions with most Hindus (82.7%), followed by Muslims (11.4%), Christians (2.4%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.7%), Jains (0.5%) and others (0.4%). As per the 44th Amendment to the constitution, India was declared as a ‘Secular State” (Lancy Lobo,2000). As a secular exercise Indian supreme court issued orders that elections must be a secular exercise and ‘No politicians can seek vote in the name of caste, creed or religion’. But is India truly a secular country? Has India erupted into a religious based politics?
Some of the major political parties in India are Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (Congress), Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist party of India (Marxist). BJP is the current ruling party and congress is the main opposition party (Pamposh Raina, 2014).
The Ayodhya dispute is one of the socio-religious debate in Indian politics. The city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh is believed as the birthplace of Lord Rama by Hindus in India. In early 16th century emperor Babur destroyed a Hindu temple and built a mosque dubbed as Babri Masjid. A political rally on 6 December 1992 turned into riot as the people destroyed Mosque of Babur (Babri Masjid) (Zeenat Saberin, 2017). This triggered violence between majority Hindus and sizable Muslims as Hindus teared down the mosque through sledgehammers, pickaxes resulting in death of nearly 2000 people in the country. This movement to rebuild the Hindu temple (Ram Mandir) in the sacred land of Ayodhya helped BJP to launch its political fledge in 1980. It helped BJP gain maxi...
