Here we find out about Political Organization of India, a federal parliamentary democratic republic with a clear separation of powers and we will know how its political beginnings were after the revolution initiated by Gandhi.
The political organization of India: its main characteristics
The Indian political system is based on the Westminster model, but is structured at the federal level. Its government, since independence, except for a period of almost 10 years, is in the hands of the political heirs of Gandhi.
Until the last elections, this country had an atomized multiparty system. In May 2009, the oldest political party, the Indian National Congress (INC), won an overwhelming vote and changed the political landscape, although its effectiveness is now in doubt.
On August 15, 1947, India gained its independence and was incorporated as a sovereign nation belonging to the British Commonwealth. This led to the division of two states: India and the Muslim state of Pakistan.
In their beginnings, the two were established as autonomous, but with the king of Great Britain as head of state and governor general.
On January 26, 1950, the Constitution of India came into force, inspired by the philosophy of liberal democracy, and with it the process of independence was concluded. Then, in 1952, the first general elections were held, so that the largest democracy in the world was finally established, by its people.
Currently, there are more than 180 registered political parties and more and more participate in the government through its proportional representation system.
Political system
The political organization of India today is based on the union of 28 states and seven territories, through a federal system. Constitutionally, it is defined as a "socialist and secular democratic republic", with a parliamentary system of government.
The executive branch is made up of the president, the prime minister, and the council of ministers. The president is the head of government, but the real authority of the executive is the prime minister. The presidency - in the Indian case - is a number that replaces that of the Queen of Great Britain. This means that it has quite symbolic and formal authority and very little power.
This country has the third largest state apparatus in the world, 39,5% of the jobs that exist in India come from the public sector, and the public service demands a very high standard for its civil servants, to the point that in this country the Country officials are considered an elite.
The Parlament
The bicameral parliament of India and has an upper house (Rajya Sabha) and a lower house (Lok Sabha). The Upper House, also known as the Council of States, has 250 members elected indirectly and proportionally by the legislative assemblies of the individual states.
The age to become a member of the Rajya Sabha is 30 years and tenure is 6 years. The Lower House, also known as the House of the People, can have 552 members elected for five years by popular vote.
Laws can be introduced by both chambers and must be accepted by both and have the consent of the president to be so.
The exception is that laws regarding the budget, taxes and other sums must be introduced by the lower house, and the upper house cannot modify the bills, it can only make recommendations and return the bill. law within fourteen days from the date you received it.
Presidential election
An electoral college, made up of elected members of both houses of parliament, and the state legislatures choose the president and vice president for a five-year cycle.
The president, in turn, selects the prime minister, who is the leader of the party or coalition with the parliamentary majority in the lower house. Most central government decisions are made by the Prime Minister, on behalf of the President, who is ultimately the most senior figure in the Indian government.
India's Parliament is modeled on the model used in England, which includes the institution known as Question Hour, where lower house MPs have one hour, at the start of each day, to question executive government ministers about their functions. , which is televised.
The Parties and their tradition in power
The party system is multiparty and with a predominance of small regional parties; National parties are those recognized in four or more states.
The electoral system is a proportional representation system, which means that any party or coalition can obtain a majority in the lower house and become the government.
For most of the post-independence period, India was ruled by the social democratic party and political heir of Mahatma Gandhi, called the Indian National Congress (INC).
But from 1977 the party had to face a series of political crises, so that in the periods 1977-1980, 1989-1991 and 1996-2004, power was in the hands of the opposition, represented mainly by the party. Nationalist Bharatiya Janata (BJP).
Indeed, Indian politics in the 1990s did not become stable until the BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance, integrating small regional parties, and became the first non-INC coalition to complete a term. five years. .
Later, in 2004, the INC, also known as Congreso-I or Partido del Congreso, regained its electoral support, which allowed it to form the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government coalition, which brings together leftist and opposition parties. BJP.
Thus, as of May 22 of the same year, Manmohan Singh was appointed Prime Minister, who remains in office after his re-election in May 2009.
The creation of coalition governments reflects a change in Indian politics, where smaller regional parties are gaining more power by the day.
For this reason, today one of the hottest discussions in India concerns the transformation of this party system into a two-party system, which reduces the large number of parties that participate in political activity, thanks to a new electoral system.
How was the political organization of India in ancient times
In ancient times, due to the fact that there were a series of provinces that were under the government of kings, a kind of patriarchal monarchy was created.
However, it was not until the Aryan invasions that the Hindus found it necessary to form city-states for self-defense, in which the palace of the Rajah, whose authority was greater than that of the heads of the provinces.
However, after the Aryan incursion, the power passed to reside in the warriors, until the priests managed to take control, imposing the Brahmanical religion and a society divided into closed castes of Brahmins and Shahriar, in this is to say, it was a system of family classes, fundamentally religious, which by lineage had power.
Therefore, the hierarchy of power in the Hindu culture consisted of the king, as supreme ruler; the brahmins, who were part of the priestly class, administered justice and imposed laws called dharma, whose principles referred to spiritual purity or contamination; and a feudal elite, made up of officials who owned large estates.
The political organization of India today
Following independence from the British in 1947, the nation was divided into two states: India and Pakistan, although initially both nations had the King of Great Britain as their head of state.
Three years later the new Constitution entered into force, based on a federal system defined as democratic, socialist and secular, which provides for free elections and proportional representation.
Currently, the political organization of India is made up of an executive power made up of the president, who is elected every five years by the state assemblies and the national parliament, but is a symbolic authority with little power; the Prime Minister, who is really in charge, and finally, a Council of Ministers.
As we have seen, the political organization of India, having been subordinate to religion, today enjoys full freedom, however, the old caste system, which intensified with British colonization, and would have been abolished with emancipation, continues being valid in government applications.