Congress Party Research Articles

Suicide in India: a complex public health tragedy in need of a plan

Suicide in India: a complex public health tragedy in need of a plan

Informing NCD control efforts in India on the eve of Ayushman Bharat

Informing NCD control efforts in India on the eve of Ayushman Bharat

Cancer trends and disparities in India: data needs for providing equitable cancer care.

Cancer trends and disparities in India: data needs for providing equitable cancer care.

ADEUS, NEHRU: POLÍTICA EXTERNA INDIANA SOB A GLOBALIZAÇÃO

This article analyses the trends of India’s foreign policy in recent years under the light of political and economic dynamics, with a focus in its regional surrounding. The text locates an inflection towards economic liberalization undertaken in the beginning of the 1990´s, and then moves on to the context of economic expansion in the 21st century. The achievements and limits of those processes are taken into consideration. In the political realm, as the legitimacy of the Indian National Congress (INC) was brought to check, so was its hegemony, in a process that has favored the rise of political agencies identified with hindu nationalism and communalism, such as the BJP. Overall, the hallmarks of Indian politics that prevailed since independence under leadership of the Congress Party are left behind: economic nationalism, secular politics, and international non-alignment. In this context, the broad orientation of Indian foreign policy also has changed. The text analyses the consequences of this inflection in the regional context, focusing the Neighbors first policy and the priority given to infrastructural connectivity with Southeast Asia (Look East and Act East policies), as well as the recent intensification of business in the African continent. Altogether, the expectations of an alternative civilizatory horizon in the context of the Cold War which has nurtured Nehruvian politics, has given place to a pragmatic rationality that accepts the United States leadership and as such, draws strategies adapting to the mercantile trends that typify globalisation.

Gender in political parties: Ghana's 2016 general elections

ABSTRACTPolitical parties are key institutions for enhancing female participation and representation in leadership positions. However, in Ghana, this role of parties has not taken root. The purpose of the study is to analyse women's participation and presentation in party leadership structures, and as candidates in the 2016 parliamentary elections. Qualitative methodology was used. Findings suggest that the gender gap has not been substantially reduced in Ghana's two dominant political parties, the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party. This situation undermines enhancement of democracy. The gender gap is caused by the parties’ lack of political will, patronage politics and culture. These hinder the promotion of gender equity. Thus, gender is not an important determinant in selection of candidates and distribution of power and influence. The parties and the women's associations need to be pro-active and strategise to promote gender equity.

Pastoral Letters and the Church in the public square: An assessment of the role of Pastoral Letters in influencing democratic processes in Malawi

The contributory role Pastoral Letters play in Malawi’s democracy cannot be underestimated. Historically, Pastoral Letters have been the voice of the Malawian people, and these have forced authorities to accommodate social and political reforms. From colonialism, federations and independence to the birth and consolidation of democracy, Pastoral Letters have been issued by the Church to State authority demanding political change and improvement in governance issues. For instance, Pastoral Letters issued by the Church put pressure on the British to end colonialism in Malawi, and in 1992, Pastoral Letters hugely contributed to the dismantling of Dr Kamuzu Banda’s, and the Malawi Congress Party’s, three-decade autocratic rule. Even in the multiparty dispensation, which was ushered in during 1994, Pastoral Letters have provided checks and balances to government in the consolidation of democracy. Thus, Pastoral Letters represent the voice of the voiceless in every political dispensation. The article is informed by the Pauline Pastoral Letters’ conceptual framework. The main argument governing this article is that unless there is continuity in the issuing of Pastoral Letters by the Church in addressing specific challenges within a democracy, sustainability of democratic value will always be compromised and not realised.Interdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This is an interdisciplinary article that touches on practical and public theology focusing on Church history and polity in assessing the role of Pastoral Letters in influencing the sustainability of democratic processes in a public square. The article contributes to a wider debate on the role the Church’s Pastoral Letters play in determining the sociopolitical landscape in Malawi. However, this is the only article written from a Pauline Pastoral Letters’ conceptual framework.

Counting Caste: Censuses, Politics, and Castelessness in India

This article addresses the important question of how “upper”-caste power is reproduced in contemporary India, in the face of organized challenges from below. It argues that this process turns on the reproduction of castelessness. A long-standing site for the cultivation of castelessness has been the postcolonial census, which has limited the enumeration of caste to certain nonelites for the purposes of affirmative action reservations. However, in the aftermath of an intensive campaign to include a full castewise enumeration in Census 2011, the political leadership of the Indian National Congress Party conceded and reversed seventy years of census policy on caste. This article examines the institutional pushback within the executive bureaucracy in the year following the public concession to change census policy on caste. In doing so, it shows how bureaucratic actions and inactions reproduce both castelessness and upper-caste power in contemporary India.

Corruption and Factionalism in Contemporary Punjab: An ethnographic account from rural Malwa

AbstractOver the length of its current tenure, Punjab's Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has sought to become more a socially inclusive party, more responsive to popular demands, and even to improve service delivery and eradicate corruption. However, despite these lofty goals, it has also presided over what people refer to as ‘goonda raj’—a rule of thugs—and has managed to alienate large sections of the population and, in the process, fuelled the rise of the anti-corruption Aam Admi Party in the state. In this article, based on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Malwa, I attempt to shed light on the roots of this contradiction. Is it simply the case, as ordinary people allege, that the SAD's claims are empty and that its members are merely interested in looting the state? Or, alternatively, is it the case that the party merely operates in accordance with Punjab's allegedly time-honoured tradition of rival factions competing to appropriate the spoils of power? I suggest instead that much of the corruption and violence observable at the village level in Punjab has its roots in the antagonistic relationship between the Congress Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal. It is this antagonism that appears to fuel the SAD's highly partisan form of government, and it is partisan government that appears to fuel the corruption and the village-level factional conflict that is documented in this article.

Politics and public goods in developing countries: Evidence from the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi

This paper employs an instrumental variables strategy to identify the effect of party ideology on policy outcomes. Exogenous variation in party representation is generated by the assassination of the leader of the Congress party, which occurred midway through India's national elections in 1991, and dramatically increased the probability of Congress victory for a subset of constituencies. Representation by the Congress party leads to a substantial increase in the provision of public goods favored by the poor, consistent with the party's expressed populist agenda. Among the salient changes are increases in the availability of drinking water and primary education, and declines in agricultural and industrial electrification and telephone coverage. I compare these effects to those obtained using a regression discontinuity design, and find that the latter yields little effect of Congress representation on public goods allocations.

Piercing the Incumbency Syndrome: Ghana’s Democratic Transition in 2017

Ghana’s political landscape changed dramatically in 2017, with the election of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo as president. Ghana’s political transition in 2017 raises new insights into presidential recruitment and politics in Ghana. The purpose of this article is to examine the 2016 elections within the spectrum of the politics of Ghana’s presidential recruitment. This article discusses the hurdles that were surmounted by the opposition New Patriotic Party party, in unseating the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) party. The author coins the term ‘the John Syndrome’ to highlight the mythology held by some commentators that Akufo Addo could not be elected president, because his name is not ‘John’. Discussions about intra-party squabbles that resulted in the loss of NDC’s incumbency are provided. The article concludes that Akufo Addo’s presidency symbolises a de-mythologisation of ‘the John Syndrome’. The perception that Akufo Addo saved the nation in 2012 was his major weapon in piercing John Mahama’s incumbency. The demise of the NDC is likely to create an intra-party shift in favour of the party’s founder.

Percepción de los estudiantes que ingresan a estudiar pedagogía de lo que es un buen ciudadano, las instituciones públicas y la efectividad de la acción política

The goal of this report is to study University of Concepcion preservice teachers’ conceptions about what it means to be a good citizen, public institutions, and efficiency of the political action. The study was conducted by using an exploratory and quantitative method. Data about conceptions, attitudes and actions was gathered by using a test developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). In 1999, the test was applied to Chilean students and in 2009; the test was applied to primary and middle school students (Mineduc, 2004). Findings show that pre-service teachers have a low interest as well as comprehension about politics. In addition, they show very low confidence in public institutions such as government, congress, police, justice system, and political parties. On the other hand, they show high value regarding civil rights, the rol of the government and opportunities provided by democracy.

Emergence of Indian National Congress and Its Role in State Politics of Arunachal Pradesh

he political activities in Arunachal Pradesh are of recent origin as it remains unexposed to outer world for long time. Traditional socio-political institutions of various tribal communities were primarily responsible for managing people’s day-to-day affairs. People of Arunachal (erstwhile NEFA) were ignorant about the party politics and election system for a long time since independence but it doesn’t mean that they have no idea about the Indian National Congress. Before the emergence of modern polity in NEFA, some sections of people have an idea about the INC because of its active participation in Indian struggle for independence. However, the initiation of political party formation in the state started with the visit of Kumarasami Kamraaj, then president, AICC in 1967, at Pasighat where he talked about the necessity of foundation of Congress party in the state. With this backdrop, the paper aims to trace the emergence and growth of Indian National Congress, popularly known as “Congress” in Arunachal Pradesh. The data for the study were gathered through already available literature on state politics in Arunachal Pradesh and through face-to-face interview with some of the eminent political personalities of the state who played vital role in political development of Arunachal Pradesh.

News stories don’t match political party agendas

Using rank order correlations, this study contrasts party agendas propagated in press releases and tweets of Democratic and Republican parties in USA and India’s BJP and Congress Party, with front-page newspaper agendas published in The New York Times and The Times of India. Analysis of all news articles shows governance, economy/business, international relations, and defense rank highly in both newspapers, whereas press releases and tweets in political parties are mainly concerned with governance and economy/business.

The Political Economy of Economic Conservatism in India: From Moral Economy to Pro-business Nationalism

Economic conservatism in India today is associated with the BJP’s embrace of markets and competition. This article argues that conservatism within the nationalist movement was founded on rejecting both the market and the planned economy, embracing instead ‘moral economy’ principles of economic life guided by social norms, and development founded on small-scale craft production. After independence, conservative nationalists, while acknowledging the need to enhance state power through industrial growth, protected the moral economies of craft-based and agrarian production. But as the Congress party fractured, farmers’ movements asserted interests in market-based agricultural transformation and liberalization shifted the issue space of economic debate, new pro-business conservatives presented a new vision based on enhancing national wealth and strength through capitalist enterprise.

The Roots and Varieties of Political Conservatism in India

A country that has not gone through a revolution, India has been the crucible of several reform movements as early as the nineteenth century. But none of them intended to break with the past. They even sometimes prepared the ground for revivalism. In parallel, Hindu traditionalism developed in reaction to social and cultural change. In the twentieth century, these schools of thought found political expressions in the Congress party where they inhibited the fights against the caste system and land reform. These trends continued after 1947, in reaction to Nehruvian views, till conservative Congressmen created the Swatantra party and then the Congress (O).

Neo-Hindu Fundamentalism Challenging the Secular and Pluralistic Indian State

Secularism seems to require separation between religion and State. Regarding India, it would be better to speak of ‘equidistance’ between State and religious denominations. Nonetheless a ‘balanced treatment’ towards the religions leaves the question open as to what form that equidistance should take. This is the reason of some contradictions in today’s Indian social and political life. It is likely that without the Moghul and British domination Hinduism would not have acquired a militant identity. It was the ‘epiphany’ of well-armed, powerful ‘Others’ (Muslim, Christian or secular) which generated frustration and fear to such an extent that a religious nationalism (Hindutva) was born. Nehru and the Left of the Congress Party leadership thought that modernity would overcome religion, which is a remnant of the past. They were confident that a political culture based on pluralism and tolerance would become the foundations of the new society. This is exactly what Hindu Nationalism takes issue with: the ‘pseudo-seculars’ project of building the national identity without Hinduism or against Hinduism. Hindutva asserts that Hinduism is the basis of the Indian civilization. The Hindu ethos is the soul of the nation.

The dog that did not bark: the army and the emergency in India

ABSTRACTIn June 1975, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency rule, capping off a decade long process of the ‘deinstitutionalisation’ of the founding Congress party, increased social mobilisation, and political instability – factors generally considered conducive to military intervention in politics. Organisational factors encouraging military praetorianism, such as military involvement in internal security missions and the growth of ‘rival’ paramilitary institutions, accompanied this process of political decay. But the Indian military did not exploit this window of opportunity. This article offers an institutionalist explanation of the military’s political restraint based on two factors. First, institutionalised mechanisms of civilian control, forged during the critical juncture following independence, insulated the military from politics and the politicians from the military despite the weakening of the political system under which these were created. Second, military internalisation of the norm civilian supremacy, continually reinforced via professional socialisation processes, acted as an internal barrier to military role expansion.

Political myth-making in media policy: The case of the African National Congress versus the Press Council of South Africa

Abstract This article introduces semiotic myth theory as a methodology for the analysis of both political narratives and media policy discourse. In particular, this is applied to the country of South Africa and traces the historical rhetorical mechanisms employed by the majority African National Congress (ANC) party from 2007 to 2016 in its criticisms against the country’s press regulatory system, the Press Council of South Africa (PCSA). This is done as a demonstration, by application, of how political myth-making works in action or conversely, fails to work and loses relevancy. While semiotic myth theory has not been routinely applied to either political speech, and less so to media policy debates, and while the theoretical approach of applying semiotic myth theory to political discourse or rhetoric adopted here is applied to a very particular context and issue, it could serve well in application to a variety of political narratives, discourses and debates globally.

Midterm Election in Kerala in 1960 and the American Government

After toppling the first Communist ministry in Kerala the main attention of the US agencies—Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US Embassy in India—was to install a non-communist stable government in Kerala to meet the dangers of communism in Asia. The US agencies adopted two ways to realise these objectives. First of all, they extended all out support to the triple alliance composed of the Congress Party, Praja Socialist Party (PSP) and the Muslim League against the Communist Party in 1960 election. The election campaign of the triple alliance was much funded by the CIA. However the triple alliance won the election, the Communist Party got more votes than in 1957 and it intensified the US agencies to beef up its anti-Communist operations in Kerala and outside. It led to the adoption of second method of anti-Communist activities that the US agencies began to give wide publicity in India and outside that the first Communist ministry in Kerala could not make any economic advancement in Kerala during their tenure nor could they redress the chronic problems of unemployment and food scarcity and if Communists were voted to power in other parts of Asia, they would follow the same trend and fall.

Political deliberation and democratic reversal in India: Indian coffee house during the emergency (1975–77) and the third world “totalitarian moment”

While the coffee house as a space of political deliberation has been a common feature across the globe, there are few historical cases in which one can analyze the role of such face-to-face political deliberation under totalitarian moments in heretofore democratic states. Of the analogous cases of democratic reversal, India is one of the most important and under-researched. In 1975, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was convicted of corrupt election practices. Rather than concede to the high court ruling, she suspended the constitution and installed herself as India’s sole political authority. The Indian Coffee House in New Delhi became the key site of resistance to the Emergency (1975–77). The totalitarian moment pushed contentious politics into the Coffee House, initially galvanizing it: even the older members of Indira Gandhi's Congress Party, who were active participants in India's Freedom Movement, were key participants in coffee house deliberations. Eventually, however, Indian Coffee House was bulldozed and political deliberation crushed. The space of the coffee house may foster political deliberation among different viewpoints, but when interaction is concentrated in one such space, it becomes easier for the state and its agents to suppress oppositional politics and more difficult for both establishment and oppositional politics themselves to retain a diversified public sphere character. While coffee houses and analogous institutions are not adequate substitutes for other forms of democratic politics, therefore, they can encourage expression when other avenues are closed off and nourish the memory of a democratic political culture for the future.