Q16 of 27 Page 1

Highlight the crucial issues over which a broad consensus has emerged amongst different political parties in India.

In the midst of severe competition and many conflicts, a consensus appears to have emerged among most parties. This consensus consists of four elements.


• Agreement of the new economic policies: While many of the parties in India opposed the agreement of the new economic policies, but most of the parties were in favour of the agreement. Most of the parties believed that this new economic policy would bring greater prosperity to the country and India will achieve the superpower status in the world


• Acceptance of the political and social claims of the backward classes: political parties have recognized that the social and political claims of the backward castes need to be accepted. As a result, all political parties now support the reservation of seats for the ‘backward classes' in education and employment. Political parties are also willing to ensure that the OBCs get a sufficient share of power.


• Role of the state level parties in the governance: since the emergence of the many parties in the country the importance of state-level parties has been emerged to form the government. State level parties are sharing power at the national level and have played a central role in the country's politics of the last twenty years or so.


• Pragmatic considerations rather than ideological positions and political alliances without ideological agreement: coalition politics has shifted the focus of political parties from ideological differences to power-sharing arrangements.


More from this chapter

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14

The concept of cooperative security is more effective in dealing with various contemporary threats to security. Justify the statement with any four suitable points.

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What were the major land reforms initiated by the government of India? Why some of these land reforms became unsuccessful in India?

 17

Read the passage and answer the following questions:

The growing focus on environmental issues within the arena of global politics was firmly consolidated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992. This was also called the Earth Summit…What was obvious at the Rio summit was the rich and the developed countries of the first world generally referred to as the ‘Global North' were pursuing a different environmental agenda than the poor and the developing countries of the III world called the ‘Global South…The differences in their approach culminated into the adoption of the principle called "Common but differentiated responsibilities”.


a. Why was the environmental concern of the first world different from that of the III world?


b. In what ways the principle of ‘Common but differentiated responsibilities’ helped in addressing and overcoming the


differences between the ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’?

 18

Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions:

The first general election was the first big test of democracy in a poor & illiterate country. Till then democracy had existed only in prosperous countries, mainly in Europe andNorth America, where nearly everyone was literate. By that time, many countries in Europe had not given voting rights to all women. In this context, India's experiment with universal adult franchise appeared to be very bold and risky. An Indian editor called it "the biggest gamble in history". Organiser, a magazine wrote that Jawaharlal Nehru "would live to confess the failure of universal adult franchise in India"…but when the general elections were held it was admired equally by the observers outside India also. TheIndian experiment had proved the critics wrong. In fact, become a landmark in the history of democracy all over the world.


1. How the first general elections of 1952 became a major landmark in the history of democracy all over the world?


2. What problems did election commission confront while holding the first general elections in the country?