Regional parties are important in their won way because they look after the interests of the state. Don't expect the National Conference which is a party from Kashmir to understand the problems of Tamil Nadu and its people..for that the DMK or AIDMK is necessary. Hence for state assemblies we need regional parties. However where pan national interests are involved , there we need pan national parties , because it is expected they will rise above regional interests and look at the interest of the nation as a whole.

YES-decline of national parties is a threat to the national unity of the country in the long run.
In a society we have differant Units
SELF
Couple with kids
Joint Family
Community
Panchayat or Municipality
State & Nation.
We are now more selfish and now find very few Joint families.
At a political level earlier Panchayat / Municipal elections were faught by individuals-but now you find parties! ...more

The regionalism and coaltion era is hurting nationalistim in a big way. Regional parties are staking claim to key ministries and portfolios and using the same to boost all plan allocation and expenditure in their region. This is harming the national interestr. Year after year railway ministers have been from Bihar resulting in Bihar centric rail development. The same it true with the DMK whoes MPs have ensured that Chennai and TN gets the lions share in terms of development and growth. Such unfair practices bode ill for the country. Besides most of the regional parties fight the national elections on regional issues rather than national ones. This defeats the whole purpose of having a central government. It is therefore in the larger interest of India that all Indians should vote for parties which have a central mass base and not those who seek to profess their regional clout and identity.

It certainly is.
Fall of national parties mean:
1. Locals' lost faith in national parties.
2. Lost faith in national parties would mean a tendency towards local issues gaining prominence over national issues.
3. It would then mean national issues being on the backburner or non-issues.
4. It then means less attachment with national issues.
5. This in turn means less attachment with the nation
6. Then that point won't be far, when the nation would lose its relevance and ultimately the regional parties like regional satraps would be dividing the nation, suiting to their own needs. Only change from 16th. century would be change of custodians.
I have said earlier and I maintain that Politicians do not fall from sky, nor do they come from foreign lands. They represent the very face of the society.
This is also not to forget that regional parties came up as the gross negligence of local issues by national parties.
I had been to Shillong few years back. The nearest airport was Guwaha ...more

Most of today's politicians are selfish. Good politicians are a rarity.Even the National parties do not do much for the interest of the country. A large chunk present Government consists of members from a National Party things have not improved after they came to power.The security of our country is at stake .They only offer lip service and are interested in filling their own coffers. So these selfish lot who mostly play dirty politics do not augur well for the country irrespective of whether they belong to a National Party or a Regional party. I doubt if the current situation will improve after one more election.

Your being too kind comrade Capitan. I wish you'd have pulled off an Abdul Nasser during your ARmy service!! WHY DIDN'T YOU DANGIT?!

Ever since Indhira Gandhi ate the assassin's fatal bullet, and esp. after Rajeev Gandhi went ahead w/ his "Panchayat empowerment" scheme & this whole "decentralization" hullabaloo, this country has been a collective public toilet for all sorts of petty regionalists, communalists and localists.

The notion of "national party" no longer holds true to its real meaning, in post Indhira India. Ever since Indhira ji times, National party = sum of all regional parties & also genetic mistakes (right wing). Rajeev Gandhiji wanted administration to "be right next door"- and well, he didn't predict snowballing regionalism & localism at the cost of national identity.

Rajeev ji's "right next door" administration woulda worked had "village chiefs" or "local chiefs" been open minded like ye....but most "panchayat chiefs" or "village chiefs" turn out to be the ...more

Granting that regional parties will take centre stage what makes you think that it will not augur well for the country. Will they not have a common minimum programme which will have nation's interest at heart? Anyway what is so grand about what is happening now? There is chaos everywhere. Let us have a new style of working and see how things shape. As for me I want a change and any change does have initial successes. Let us capitalise on that. All States are inter connected. If for example Chennai will have good roads what can they do with those roads if other States donot have them? Watch and wait. I find the whole thing pretty interesting.

There is a tired old joke among journalists in India that even passing social fads, special interest groups or local cults on the sub-continent could touch as many numbers as some Western democracies have in terms of total population. That's the great Indian democracy and the Mahaparva of democracy called General Elections!! One may have issues with the nature of our democracy, question its true representative character, even occasionally give a call for boycott - as dissenting rebel groups in strife-torn border states and naxal hit areas often do.But as this gigantic festival cranks into motion, few can wonder at the fact that all of it is in one piece and it actually works. That is what we call the beauty of our democracy where the slogan "ye public hai sab janti hai" still holding it's relevance.Before I write anything more, let me discuss three basic points:-

Firstly, I don't think that this trend of coalition government is going to stop in the coming decades.Actually, national ...more

I hardly think its a threat to national unity. Despite the true fact of the descending order of morality among politicians and growing nepotism, I still believe in the sanctity and belief in the minds of India`s democratic value which is the foundation of all functions. Yes, I am with you Omega Sir, on the point that none of parties are unpatriotic. May be their definition of patriotism is different than that we had witnessed in British rule and no wonder we still follow Gandhi era whenever one talk about patriotism. Time changed and there has been lots of water flown under Ganga Bridge since then; gone are the days of Gandhi Cap replaced by safari suit. Still, this change does not reflect there is change too in the pattern on patriotism. Perhaps, voters did not grow much more awaken or truthful to their birth right. Each party, irrespective of state level or national level, is powerfully influenced by its own background, training, and impulses. The leaders became shrewd enough to igni ...more

Dear Omega,
Good evening,
Let me answer the above Q with my own Q asked some 240 days ago, which is "The near-uniform anti-incumbent voting by the Indian public in many recent elections is the clear proof that the Indian public is simply tired of NON-PERFORMANCE of the Indian democratic system that has FAILED on SECURITY and ECONOMIC fronts.It is simply down right idiotic to continue with Indian democratic system in its current form.
"Unregulated democracy undermines liberty and the rule of law". India is turning out to be a dysfunctional and a disintegrating democracy that couldnt provide rule of law or create conditions for its people to prosper.
HAS THE INDIAN DEMOCRACY FAILED?"
Every other regional parties have base according to the needs of that local population. It is the only positive signal one can have about regional parties.It is the fall out of deliverance by any existing government . Some opportunist politicians have gained out of sheer greed, nothing of population or ...more