Shifting Textures of the Politics of Presence

Arguably, in the Indian democratic set-up, electoral politics has acquired a texture that, at the surface level, brings certain shifts to our notice. For example, a decade and a half ago, what one could observe is the rationality of effective presence in the consolidation of electoral presence by using demographic preponderance to one’s advantage, particularly of parties that continue to claim to represent the political interests of minorities and lower-caste groups. Thus, what existed earlier were the sincere efforts made by the leaders of such groups to bring in resources—particularly activist ones—with an emancipatory ideological urge of campaigning for its candidates. Thus, what was being done was to privilege democratic ideals over demographic advantage. Of course, the caste majority was charged with democratic ideals that supplied the normative basis for this politics of presence. Hence, its reasoning was focused on what was effectively and objectively possible for consolidating the political energy of these under-represented groups. Earlier, these groups emphasised on the pragmatic need to normatively convert their demographic strength into an electoral consolidation of votes. The rationale of the mainstream parties was also suggestive of the fact that such parties would not feel threatened by lower-caste electoral consolidation as it would be arguably inconsequential to the overall prospects of becoming a party with the majority of seats.

These smaller parties, of late, seem to have moved away from consolidating their hold over areas with demographic preponderance of their castes to contest elections even in those constituencies where they do not have a demographic preponderance over other parties that are also in the election fray. Such parties from the margins may offer a different kind of justification to defend their attempts to spread out in those other constituencies. However, in consequence, such decisions lead to a fragmentation that results in the division of votes, and such a fragmentation helps other parties that may not share its normative vision that apparently forms the guiding force for these smaller parties. Thus, the smaller parties may claim to be nearer to the normative principle, but such principles do not have a corresponding impact on those mainstream parties that are the beneficiaries of dispersion in politics.