Coalition is Indian Politics - Prabhu Chawla

One of the most awaited highlights of Techniche'08 started off after a little delay in the auditorium of IITG. Mr. Prabhu Chawla, known by one and all to be a journalist of caliber and experience, enlightened the audience with his presentation on the changing scenario's of Indian Politics. India, which was once ruled by a single party winning absolute majority, was now changing and in at least the next 25 years will be governed by multi party coalitions. This shift from absolute majority governments to coalitions has not been easy for the country. The speaker attributed this shift more to the spheres of dominance of variety of leaders having influence over their region/caste/religion.

The presence of these leaders, leads to the no. of seats being won by their respective parties, in the parliament getting fixed with successive elections. For instance, an influential leader in Tamil Nadu and his party men will always secure his seats from particular constituencies where his or his ideology is popular.

This emergence of many leaders with local sphere's of influence displays the absence of a leader whose persona and ideologies cuts across all bounds of region, caste, religion, sex. But this might also be a beneficial as it opens up new avenues of governance and provides more options.

Since, all leaders are of equal influence it leads to distribution of power and prevents its concentration and thus its misuse.

The distinguished speaker explained how the Economy of India was going global, the politics going regional. He presented the audience with amazing facts about India's undertaking in a variety of fields from Politics to economics. He shared some light moments too by giving a brief account of his personal experiences with the national leaders today with a much admired humorous tone to it.

A two hour lecture had the audience involved and captivated for all its duration, finally concluded with the speaker consenting to take queries from the audience. A variety of questions were asked by the students and journalists and a lot of questions were asked about the media's role in the society today. To which Mr. Chawla gave the simple reason that one also had to think of it in terms of marketing it in the way the audience wants it. So, if the audience stops viewing irrelevant events in a glamorized way, the media will also stop showing it.