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Political parties’ “appeasement of minorities” will be taught in the schools

  • National Council of Educational Research and Training’s new book on Political Science for class XI
  • Lesson on ‘Vote Bank Politics’ included

New Delhi – NCERT class XI revised edition of Political Science textbook contains India’s vote bank politics. This lesson is about the appeasement of minorities by political parties for getting votes. This is done at the cost of neglecting equal rights for all citizens, by all political parties. This content is included in the chapter ‘Vote bank politics.’

Politics of the vote bank distorts politics of elections

“Can you think of such examples? In theory, there may not be anything wrong with vote bank politics but only when vote bank politics leads to the mobilisation of a social group to vote en masse for a particular candidate or political party during elections, this distorts electoral politics. Here, the important feature is that the whole group works as a single monolithic unit during voting. Despite the diversity within the unit, the party or leader pursuing such vote bank politics tries to artificially construct a belief that the interest of the group is one. In effect, by doing this, the political parties’ priorities short- term electoral gains over the long- term development and governance needs of society.”

The political parties give importance to the interests of minorities

“In India it has been observed that political parties neglecting substantive issues have often focused on emotive issues for electoral gains, neglecting genuine problems faced by the community. Competitive vote bank politics has the potential to exacerbate social division by portraying different groups as rivals vying for limited resources. In India, the vote bank politics is also associated with minority appeasement. This means that the political parties disregard the principles of equality of all citizens and give priority to the interests of a minority group. Ironically, this has led to further alienation and marginalization of the minority group. As vote bank politics fails to acknowledge diversity within the minority group taking up issues of social reform within these groups has also proved difficult.”

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