Polity in any nation is about negotiations and bargaining where-in the themes keep on recurring in a cyclic manner. Being bothered about the Indian milieu, an understanding and comprehension of the larger Indian polity is a must. Themes of the order of Constitutional preeminence along with an awareness about the tenets of fundamental rights and duties are a prime concern for any UPSC aspirant attempting the mother of all examinations as a career option. Issues of the order of electoral politics, electioneering rules on party defections, NATGRID and NCRB, e Samiksha platform, Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj ordinance and others can form an interesting and significant points of study and rumination for our bright and young UPSC aspirants. In the larger context of the domestic polity, its equally important to position the Indian Polity in the larger firmament of International affairs along with drawing its roots from the Indian society. India with the rise of the caste factor and the notion of nationalist domination in the public narrative adds a new hues to the framework of Indian polity which need to be studied assiduously by the civil service aspirants.
Though society is a larger frame of reference, still the embedded matrix of Polity assumes great significance for the larger understanding of national purposes and objectives. The Civil service aspirants have to tread the treacherous pathway of hobnobbing with the existing academic literature along with the theme of being practically inclined keeping in view the demands of the subject concerned in the civil services examinations. The idea of the “Polis’ as to keep the political studies at a micro level gets initiated with the Greek Polis as the earliest imagination about the Rashtra or the nation where-in we are more concerned about the larger concern of the Indian nation.
Democracy too forms a part and parcel of the larger study where-in the existence of the democratic republics in India such as the Licchavi Republics form the foundation stone of the larger construct of the nation and the State. It all happened much before the Westphalian concept of state which goes back to a Eurocentric conception in the year 1648. The theme of Democracy, egalitarianism along with the larger concept of inclusivity for the fundamental concern of any understanding and deliberation upon the notion of Democracy and its practice in Bharat, that is, India.
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a) Indian Polity-Constitution, Political System etc.
b) Governance-Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
The nation swears by its anointed Constitution. The Preamble to the constitution of the Indian nation adheres to the idiom of rule of law, norms, and the hallowed tenets of fundamental rights and duties. The rule Book has enough original connotations along with deft borrowings from the constitutions of a slew of Liberal Democracies such as the UK, Irish and the American constitution.
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The nom de plume of local governance is the ideal foundation and substratum which the entire rural India is comfortably ensconced into. The Gandhian feel good thematic percept of strengthening the welfare and the governance where it’s the weakest needs to be delved inside. The hallowed genre of the historic 73rd and 74th amendments have revolutionsed the norm of efficient, accountable and transparent local governance in the heart and soul of the larger nation and its attendant population. The gelling in and the amalgamation of the various schemes leads to an efficient crystallization of the output part of the loop heading by the David Easton’s model of the Political system running true to the modicum of gagar mein sagar.
Internal security in India is a security concern in the nation both in the perspectives of a hard and a soft power approach. The concern of internal security involves what all rankles in the sphere of good governance and the security the nation’s population and its pristine Institutions. The schematic indoctrination of the youth of the nation in educational institutions and other places in order to wean them away from nationalistic and patriotic thought has emerged as core concern of the Government of the day. Radicalization this is directly attached to fanning the fires of separatism and insurgency amongst the youth which directly cripples the productivity of the nation and its instruments of good governance.
The fissiparous tendencies at work in the nation in the form of fake currency, weapons laundering, drug trafficking along with the menace of Maoism and cross border terrorism, threaten the sacrosanct integrity, unity and diversity of the Indian state. The training programme would be a drive to strengthen the state narrative of peace and inclusive development along with creating an awareness among the officer with an objective to synergize the interaction and coordination between the Civil officers and the Defense officials amongst the different departments of the Governmental ecosystem.
India adheres to a multi party system for its electioneering and political purposes. Some nations either follow an autocratic rule book akin to the People’s Republic of China or a multi party domain practice such as New Delhi, that is, India. Our Constitution also lays down certain criterion for the inculcation of a majorly multi party system, where-in, the election populism along with the larger idiom of political practice has germinated a practically speaking, two party system with the BJP and the Congress forming the mantle of the Indian system. The eminent political scientist, Paul Brass contends that the advent of federated living and the caste revolutions, in the nation brought a new cusp in the format of caste based petty politics which vitiated the turf of Indian Polity.
The understanding that who identifies and falls within the categorization of Indian Polity ushers in the theme of nationality in the State. We have well defined norms which eke out the conditions of availing and qualifying as the benefits and the pride of being an Indian citizen.
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POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
