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Chapter V Continued on Next Page Chapter V THE MAJOR AHD MEDIUM PARTIES. THBIR FORM. COSTEHT AWD NATURE The preceding chapttri wherein the historical background of the parties has been briefly discussed, serres not more than a usual aid in faailiarislng with their broad features, but the factors that contribute more to the determination of their nature are their form and content* The form is broadly composed of two elements, the organisation and structure and the elements that constitute the content, are ideology, object, leadership, membership and finance* 1. The Fora of Parties The instrument that gives a formal Tiew of the organisa­ tion of parties is the party constitution.^ The party There were many bottlenecks that blocked the way in getting it* Several parties did not have a written consti­ tution and many of those who claimed to possess one, could not offer a copy nor could they make it arailable in their respective offices. Generally» the Indian parties granted exceptions, start with a chosen name and at some later date, some workable organisational bases are mutually discussed and agreed upon by the founders in order to put them on the saddle but such bases are seldom incorporated in an instru­ ment like the constitution* The Purusharathi Panchayat alone among the existing minor parties could furnish the writer with a copy of its constitution but that too was in manuscript covering half the space of an Inland Letter Foxm* The INOC of Madras told that their constitution was based on the INC's but they in Continued on next page. 34d constitution is not always a sacred dociiment as generally the constitution of a country is; nor is it a guarantee of various interests and rights, or a check against the power from becwaing arbitrary by prescribing precise limitations as the latter does. Broadly speaking, the party constitution is an attempt at systematising and implementing the workable hypotheses and practical formulas that are so essential to the assembly, operation and expansion of an organisational machinery. The nature of the constitution will, therefore in short, depend upon the selection of the type of machinery. Footnote continued from previous page. practice had to discuss with the writer the main features of it as they did neither draft out nor formally adopt one. The only distinction between the IMG constitution and of the INOC Is that the latter has only one class of members instead of the three provided for by the former. Similarly, discussion had to be held with the 9(arxist Forward Bloc, a splinter group of the FB(M) closely collaborating with the CPI, the RRP, the Muslim League, the Nam Tamil Party, the IKK and the Sadharantantri Dal who all alike had first boasted of the existence of a constitution but were unable to produce one inspite of the promises given. The RCPI (Tagore) which has comparatively a better literature standard, made a frank admission that a copy of the constitution was not available with them. The BPI failed in their search to trace out a transcript of their constitution. And therefore in the case of these two also, the nature of their constitution was a matter of oral investigation. The president of the Jharkhand Party told that they had a constitution exactly on the lines of the constitution of the Congress but could not elaborate further. A constitution has not been finalised so far by the RWPI. More startling was the confession of the BJS, one of the four all-India parties recognised by the Election Commission, that they did not have an English copy of their constitution. The party structure cannot therefore be chiselled in these cases with as much ease as could be possible in the case of the parties whose written constitu­ tions could be brought within reach- 349 It might be unrealistic to classify or divide party constitutions as there can hardly be a uniform principle towards this end since each party normally follows a consti­ tutional pattern of its own. The party constitution varies from party to party, from country to country, takes its shape according to the designs of the makers of the party, and there are no classical standards to which it should conform and there is no hard and fast rule how It ought to be. It is a private document in which the principles and the order of internal management of the party are formally set forth. It provides of course, certain ingredients to invoke public interest which certainly do not rise beyond an inspiring Invitation unto itself. There, indeed, could be searched out in the party constitution rudiments of a covenant executed by the original party members, wanting in contractual sanctity and in means of enforcibility but with possibilities of revision in future and with the promise of a commonwealth, to use Hobbeslan words. In practice, there is no fundamental sanctity or inviolability attached to it as in the case of a state constitution. It Is no supreme document to the party because there is no unsurpassable coercion behind it to maintain its supremacy. The party itself does not expect that it should be more than a smooth workable basis, an even track to run its wheels, an ascending line of communication to apprise, a descending channel for the rapid conveyance of its orders from 350 , the top, and a convenient measure to exert the maximum supervision in implementing the orders passed. But there can be seen certain elemental likenesses, some proximities of traits with their roots in the philosophical or ideological allegiance of parties between different party constitutions. These similarities are perceptible between the constitutions of parties belonging to the three traditional divisions, the right, the left and the centre. The right party constitution is more or less autocratic in nature, whereas the centre party constitution Is a blending of liberty at the base with authority at the sunamit; it is usually liberal. The left constitution is of two categories based upon the two conventional left sub groups, the socialist left and the communist left, of which the socialist left constitution is of idealistic pattern and is theoretically sound and well-founded but the conmuhist left constitution is patently authoritarian, hence it has the maximum workability with minimum difficulty* However, as the class character and content of the Indian parties except for their label are confusingly mixed up with castes and have yet to form distinctly in overwhelming majority of the cases, it would be premature to treat their constitutions in the traditional three way. Further almost every Indian party constitution is of multi-class, multi­ caste character. The Maz*xian constitution which in the west is noted largely for its mono-class character, in India, 351 is essentially a peasants, working class, bourgeoisie constitution with ample provision for the rich to have an elbow-room under vigilance and restrictions. But the elemental likenesses and proximities of traits are demonstrably present In a different way in constitutions of the Indian pax*ties irrespective of the groups to which the parties belong, and they are largely in the internal structure and distribution of power within* Thus the position and authority of the president of a tribal party might exceed those of the general secretary of a Marxian party, although the former might claim to be democratic. Functional deviation from constitutional dictation is common with parties every­ where, but in India, the distance between the letter of the constitution and its actual working seems to be far greater than in anywhere else. The nature of the party organisation in many cases is therefore, clouded or vitiated by the inconsistency prevailing between the constitutional precepts and constitutional practices. It is curious that certain political parties like the SCF (RPI) have solved the puzzle of building up the middle and top party organs without constituting the basic units for which provisions are made in their constitutions. The RSS adopted a formal constitution only when it was made obligatory on its part in 194^ by the 2 Union Government. ------------- * ------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "In October Qolwalkar, the leader of the RSS Organisation was told that the Government of India would have no objection to the functioning of this organisation provided Continued on next page. 352 Marxian parties, the SUC and the DV have their consti- t tution still in the draft form and hence there is nothing mandatory in them. Thus many party constitutions are mere blue prints to serve certain irreducible basic requirements in political formality and means to satiate the methodological approaches of the external elements and therefore, unless they are viewed from their actual organisational structure, they will present a picture different from what they are. The Congress Organisation. There lie at the foundation of any organisational structure scattered but indirectly interconnected tiny organisms, the life bearers of the structure, each one is commonly called the primary unit or the basic element. The existence and expansion of an organisation are dependent upon the sensitivity and right augmentation of the basic elements, the time to time condition of which will relatively tell upon the organisation as a whole; when they are mercurial, the organisation is enlivened and when they go inert, the organisation becomes dormant or dead. The basic elements vary from party to party in their name and nature and mode of function. The primary unit of a party is the bottom-most part of its Footnote continued from previous page. it adopted a wxdtten and published constitution... After some discussion with his advisers, Golwalkar forwax*ded to the Government of India in March 1949, a draft constitution of the Sangh." (Review of the Activities of the Ministry of Home Affairs for the year 1949, New Delhi, The Manager, Government of India Press, 1950, P«34«) 353 structure and it operates In the lowest and smallest division of party-jurisdiction.
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