The coalition government is a bane or boon for democracy in India. Support your answer with arguments.
Coalition era governments started in the late 20th century in the Indian political scenario.
Congress had already lost its dominance among the Indian public given the rivalry of Indira and Syndicate factions, death of Nehru, emergency imposition, etc. The elections of 1989 gave a jolt to all the parties since no single party was able to gather necessary numbers to form a government by proving its majority. And hence, this was the start of coalition politics
Following are disadvantages of coalition
- number of opinions lead to delayed decision making
-the central leadership cannot take any policy decision without taking into consideration all the coalition partners
-satisfying the partner parties becomes the priority of the government rather than development or welfare of the public at large
-coalition parties also consist of regional parties, wherein regional leaders put pressure on the centre to accede to their demands
Following are advantages of coalition
- number of parties led to diverse viewpoints in policymaking exercise
-coalition partners prevent authoritarian tendencies of the central leadership
-in a coalition, due to the presence of regional parties, the central leadership also gets to know about the state-specific socio-economic problems.
Despite all the advantages, there are many instances why India has suffered a lot in the coalition government times due to policy paralysis. Hence, we need a strong centre