Coalition Politics in India : First Decade of 21 Century

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction: Coalition or fragmentation of politics. 2. Party politics: national. 3. Regionalists and coalition politics. 4. Foreign policy. 5. Elections: Lok Sabha 2009. Index.

"The Congress-led coalition government at the centre has tried to grapple with extremely complex domestic and foreign policy questions. The first task of the Congress-led coalition was to keep government-in-power by winning over the consent and approval of its multiple and diverse coalitional partners. Its second task was to handle difficult foreign policy issues with the United States of America especially with reference to Nuclear deal for peaceful energy purposes. The coalition government was involved in a great struggle to build domestic national consensus of India-United States relationship in general and on Nuclear Deal in particular. Third, the coalition government was engaged in continuous negotiations with State Governments and regional parties for pushing All India programmes without disturbing delicate centre state relations in a federal system. This study is focused on the description of multiple issues faced by coalition government in power at the centre and many questions about the actual functioning of parties, institutions and actual role of leaders of coalition have been raised and answered." (jacket)