How can you say social division is havingvpositive impact on politics?
Answers
Social divisions along the line of caste
This results into political parties focusing their attention towards creating vote banks by catering to or giving preference to a specific caste. This affects politics negatively as parties don’t strive for overall development of society but are involved in just mere accusations towards other caste-specific parties and keeping their selfish interests first.
Divisions along religious beliefs
This is the basic divide that political parties take maximum advantage of. Citizens are divided by religious beliefs into majority and minority. Some parties seek to cater to the former while some to the latter. This ideological difference can and has potentially increase the risk of communal disputes. In this case, again holistic progress as an aim takes a backseat. Minority appeasing parties seek to object even good schemes planned by parties that cater to majority and vice-a-versa.
Divisions in culture
Linguistic and cultural differences affect politics as certain dominant groups try to exert their influence. Groups in relatively under developed areas or ones who are in minority tend to feel alienated and seek to demand for separation, putting national unity in danger. This puts burden on government machinery and wastes lots of time and energy that could have been better utilized in pro-development work.
Divisions in class
Different parties cater to different groups according to their economic status. Some are apparently associated with the rich and some with the poor. The pro-poor parties seek to oppose any macro-economic liberal policies and are for more subsidies and state control on markets. For example, the INC is seen as a party that caters to the poor whereas BJP is perceived to be more friendly with industrialists and liberalization. However, it is only a matter of general perception and strict classification is not possible because most parties are increasingly considering both interests together.
Divisions along the line of gender
Women constitute around 40% of the population now. Due to age-old prejudices and discrimination, women have been stripped of basic rights and opportunities. Stronghold of patriarchy makes it difficult for women to be active leaders/players in Indian politics which is thus dominated by men. Although the voice of women in politics is still not given due recognition, these days more and more women are becoming active in politics. Women have been given 33% reservation in local level governments and the fight is still on for implementing the same at the state and centre level.
Answer: ALL the parties have competition among them..