India Enters \'Era of Regionalism\'

September 25, 2012, 4:47 am

By NIHARIKA MANDHANA

The Indian government has, for the moment, averted a political crisis. Despite full-throated resistance from the Bharatiya Janata Party and at least a dozen regional parties, which organized nationwide protests last week to oppose economic policy changes introduced by the government, it managed to cobble together sufficient support in Parliament to stay afloat.

Still, the ongoing political turbulence has once again shot India's several small-but-ascendant state and regional parties to prominence. Last week, even as the Congress party scrambled and jockeyed to remain in power  and the B.J.P. had little more than outraged protest for ammunition, these bit players grabbed center stage, assuming a make -or-break role in the government's survival.

Indeed, the political turmoil began when the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal's governing party and a key member of India's  governing United Progressive Alliance, withdrew its support over the economic moves, reducing the government to a minority. Two other regional parties, both from Uttar Pradesh, extended their support to the faltering government, bringing the coalition back from the brink of collapse.

India's political landscape, which was controlled almost exclusively by the Congress party in the 1950s and '60s, is now crowded by a patchwork of state-level parties animated by local interests and backed by strong electoral bases. Recent events provide a preview, analysts say, as the country's political machinery begins to gear up for general elections, scheduled for 2014.

“This is the era of regionalism,” said Zoya Hasan, dean at the School of Social Studies at Jawaharlal Neh ru University in New Delhi. “States have become the most important theaters of politics in the country.”

Televised images of regional leaders from across the country protesting side by side have revived the idea of a Third Front, an assortment of state parties that would function as an alternative to the two national parties, the Congress and B.J.P., which lead the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance, respectively.

Naveen Patnaik, a vocal proponent of a non-Congress, non-B.J.P. alliance and the chief minister of Odisha, told the Indian magazine Tehelka in March, “I certainly feel the need for a third front as the U.P.A. is scam-ridden and the N.D.A. is communally tainted.”

But Third Front coalitions have had only limited success. Two have formed national governments, but neither came close to finishing a full term. “The idea of the Third Front is a fraught idea,” not least because many regional parties are political and ideological rivals, said Ms. Hasan. “What binds them is anti-Congressism, not much else.”

Many of these parties arose to represent groups that felt sidelined by the Congress party.  “Those who didn't get a voice in the Congress started looking at alternatives,” said E. Sridharan, a Delhi-based political analyst.

Some sprang up to assert a distinct regional identity, like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and the Sikh-centric Akali Dal in Punjab. Others, like Uttar Pradesh's Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, emerged from social movements for rights for India's marginalized groups.

Regional leaders attribute their success to their presence at the grass roots. “People support the Samajwadi Party because we work hard on the ground,” Akhilesh Yadav, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, told India Ink. If the people of Uttar Pradesh have a problem, Mr. Yadav said, they can find leaders of the Samajwadi Party, but not of the Congress or the B.J.P.

Another key reason for these parties' rise, said Ms. Hasan, author of the 2012 book “Congress After Indira: Policy, Power, Political Change,” is that the Congress party has witnessed “not gradual, but dramatic erosion” as an organization.   When its leader Sonia Gandhi relinquished the post of prime minister in 2004, there was an expectation that she would bring about the party's “renewal,” Ms. Hasan said. “But that didn't happen,” she said.

Since 1989, no single party has won enough seats in the Indian Parliament to form a government on its own. While the Congress and the B.J.P. individually win the largest blocks of seats â€" the former has 205 and the latter 114 in the present Lok Sabha, or lower house of Parliament â€" regional parties, which garner a small but significant number of seats, have played a crucial role in propping up coalition governments.

Bolstered by their clout, many regional parties have become increasin gly assertive. Earlier this year, a clutch of powerful regional leaders, including   J. Jayalalitha of Tamil Nadu and Narendra Modi of Gujarat, blocked the government's efforts to create a national counter-terrorism center. The body would encroach on the powers of the states and deal a blow to federalism, local leaders complained.

Yet, a Third Front government is unlikely to emerge from the 2014 elections, analysts say. “How important they become,” Mr. Sridharan said, referring to the regional parties, “will depend on how much the Congress and B.J.P. need them.”