Is single party government is possible in India?

Is single party government is possible in India?

Since elections to the 16^th Lok Sabha is going on in India and what we have been witnessing is uncertainty and unpredictability in the sense that no clear cut picture is coming out that which party is able to form government at the centre.  The way the two important parties Congress and BJP are cutting each other's support and rise of the Third Front and Fourth Front  to form a non Congress non BJP government has forced us to think on a very important questions; Is any single party able to form government?  Or the trend of making coalition government will continue? The answer is more tilted towards the coalition government which once again will surely form the government at the center.

Coalition government means when no single party is able to muster clear cut majority in the parliament and formed government with the help of outside support of the political parties to form the government at the center.  Gone are the days when Indian party system was dominated by single party system i.e. congress party from (1947-1977).  It was only in 1977 the hegemony of the congress party as a ‘dominant party’, ‘catchall party’ or an ‘umbrella party’ breakdown and Janata party formed the government. Since then Indian democracy has undergone a change from single dominant congress party system to multi party and coalition governments.  What led to the breakdown of the congress party and rise of the coalition governments? 

It is the rise of the regional parties providing an alternative to congress party, over centralization of powers, fragmentation, defections, and rise of the state level political forces to represent state specific interests which led to the breakdown of congress as a natural party of governance and consequent rise of the coalition governments.

In India the era of coalition politics started in 1989 but efforts at amalgamating a political coalition at the national level were made from the days of Janata party (which formed the first non congress government at the centre in 1977) which followed by various fronts led by Janata dal in (1989, 1996, 1999), the BJP perhaps the first individual political party in 1998 which formed coalition government.

 Since then there is widely held assumption that coalition government is one of the most unstable governments because it leads to hung parliament and also posing challenges to democracy. But to refute the argument as far as coalition governments is concerned it is one of the most stable governments because it leads to deepening and widening of the democracy in the ways:

1)      Party system has dramatically transformed (breakdown of the congress as dominant party) underlying the importance of the regional parties.

2)      Regional and state level interests have been given importance which was brushed aside during the centralized planning.

3)      There has been political empowerment of historically marginalized groups and also increase in participation especially by lower castes and classes as well as women and rural voters.

4)      Coalition government work without any particular ideology. It is based on the recognition that their common goals are better served through joint rather than individual action.

5)      Coalition governments have the courage to take major policy initiatives of a kind which the government enjoying comfortable majority would not be in position to take. Some such decisions are nuclear testing, privatization and policies vis -a vis Pakistan and Kashmir, Indo- U.S nuclear deal.

6)      Parties in coalition are able to represents specific interests group and also at the same continue to maintain their distinct identities within the coalition.

 So to conclude the argument that a coalition government is naturally unstable no longer seem to be defendable because it proved longevity and stability and the best instance for such a view is 1998 -2004 NDA government. Further at this juncture with such political uncertainty the formation of a single party government is not seems to be possible. In India with such a multi diverse society coalition will long to stay with no room for the single party.