Bharat Bandh was a reflection of gross social inequality: Lord Meghnad Desai

AHMEDABAD: Throwing light on the increasing

social inequality in India

,

Lord Meghnad Desai

, professor emeritus, London School of Economics, said that the recent Bharat Bandh was a reflection of gross

social inequality

in India. He was addressing a talk on ‘Democracy: Leadership Challenges in Governance’ at Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on Saturday.

“India has been grappling with problems of governance. The call for Bharat Bandh was a reflection of gross social inequality, even 70 years after Independence. India cannot forever live with social inequality and political equality in universal adult franchise and the question is how to tackle this,” said Desai.

He also referred to the period from 1989-2014 as a period of remarkable advancement in the country’s democracy, when several parties competed at regional level. “The only way the democratic system in India tackles the problems is by making the OBCs and lower ritual jaatis aware that the only way to improve the opportunity available to them is like capturing political power,” Desai said.

He added, “An entire political system became a competition for reservations. The history then on, became multiple parties, small fragments and family parties.”

He also said that during the same period, every government had a fragile coalition and no single party was able to dictate the government. He cited social reformer Kanshi Ram, who believed in a fragile coalition where power lay in the hands of the people, unlike a stable government where people were ruled over.

Desai explained how India has adopted the western model of a two-party system which eventually transformed into an Indian model with a dominant and smaller parties. Speaking of the forthcoming 2019 elections, he said, “If in 2019, BJP repeats the success of 2014 as a single party majority government then the patterns are changing. Right now, it is a transition period.”

“Eventually, it may go back to a fragile coalition because people will decide they want to bargain. They may not trust the government intentions and may not want stability,” said Desai.