Coalition Politics in North East India

by B Pakem

ISBN: 9789354613128
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Imprint : Regency Publications
Year : 2023
Price : Rs. 5795.00
Biblio : v+158p

Author Profile

B. Pakem had his education in St. Anthony's College, Shillong; Gauhati University, Assam; and Indian School of In- ternational Studies (now Jawaharlal Nehru University), New Delhi, He was the former Cabinet Minister of Meghalaya for five years, a State Legislator for ten years, and member Autonomous District Council for five years. He taught Political Science in the Union Christian College and St. Edmund's College, Shillong, and at Dibrugarh University. He was the Honorary Director of the North Eastern Regional Centre of the ICSSR and the Honorary Secretary of the Shillong Branch of the Indian Institute of Public Administration. He is at present the Vice-Chancellor of the North Eastern Hill University, (NEHU) for the second term. He has written half a dozen books and scores of articles related to North Eastern Region of India both in regional and national journals.

About The Book

In recent years, coalition politics has attracted the attention of public leaders, policy-makers, administrators, social scientists and the citizens at large. This attention is due mainly to the anxiety arising out of the instability of coalition gov- emments in our country. The people, in general, would welcome any governmental set up provided political stability is ensured. But, of late, public leaders have almost lost their credibility, in the eyes of the people, precisely because of their failures to bring back stable governments. The public lead- ers, on their part, try to defend themselves by shifting the responsibility to the fractured verdict of the people at the hustings. It may be true that both the people and their leaders are equally responsible for such a political situation. However, public leaders have more responsibility in respect- ing the verdict of the people at the polls by trying to experiment with coalition politics on a sound basis. But, it so happen that, more often than not, the public leaders tak- ing advantage of the hung parliament and the hung State Assemblies have resorted to unhealthy practices of horse-trading and floor crossing, notwithstanding the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India. It is indeed a very sad commentary on the current state of political affairs in our coun- try in general and in North-East India in particular. The book divided into three chapters discusses the trend towards the continua- tion of coalition politics at the State level given the present system of representative government under the Indian Constitution.