Have power and ideology been used to achieve consensus India Essay

Have power and ideology been used to achieve consensus India - Es show ExampleYet, the U.S. could not bring the same degree of representation and plurality that India can. In this respect Indian democracy can be said to be more functional than the more publicized democracies of the western world. But this is not to say that real-politic does not exist in India, or that political campaigns and policy-making are fair and just. In main(a) India, there were numerous instances of misuse and abuse of power. Even the once-revered Congress troupe (which was once led by the great Mahatma Gandhi) has straightaway reduced to yet another power broker, having lost its aura and initial sanctity. (Cohen, 2000, p.32) The modish sign of its deviation from founding principles is its close alliance with the United States of America, whose imperialist agenda is well enter and blatantly expressed. And recent Indian governments have projected America-led neoliberal capitalist ideology as something clement and progressive in garnering electoral consensus. Numerous American officials already used the term irreversible to withdraw the course of Indo-U.S. relations. No U.S. president visited Indiabetween January 1978 and March 2000, when President Clinton made a historic shimmy to the Subcontinent. Cabinet-level exchanges have since become routine, and President Bushs planned visit in early spring 2006 will reverberate an agenda that has come to encompass shared world-wide interests and concerns ranging from Iran and China to nuclear cooperation and biotechnology. Some have begun to canvas Bushs visit to Indiaas similar, in both intent and consequence, to that of Richard Nixon to China in 1972--which transformed Sino-U.S. relations and the global balance of powerfor the next three decades. (Khanna & Mohan, 2006, p.43) The Congress society, which has a history going back one hundred fifteen years, is not only the oldest but also the most successful political organization in the country. In the six decades of post-Independent democracy, the party has nearly monopolized power through consistent electoral victories. But the Congress Party of today (run chthonian the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv Gandhi) doesnt follow the same ideology as that under Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru, having studied law at Harrods and much inspired by Bertrand Russell and other progressive thinkers of the time, belonged to a unlike era and espoused a different set of political values. Since his time, the condition of the party has undergone steady decline and it has now become power-hungry and devoid of content and ideals. In its early days, the party stood for such noble principles as secularism, egalitarianism and moderation. But today, this ethos is completely lacking. (Charlton, 1997, p.265) A reflection of the Congress Partys lost stature is its electoral performance in the last two decades. Ever since the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi (the grandson of Jawahar lal Nehru) in 1991, the party could not decimate to win a majority of parliamentary seats. As a result, it is dependent on coalition partners in holding onto power. In the 2004 general elections, for example, the Leftist parties such as Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) gave outside support to the Congress-led coalition government. Interestingly, it was the pressure exerted by Leftist parties that led to constructive social measures and policies during this tenure. The NREGA