Shikha Mukerjee | In democratic parties, why dissent equals disloyalty?

Avowals of democracy within parties don’t add up to much; in fact, these declarations of consultations and compromises are empty of content. That’s true of probably every party that asserts its commitment to defending India’s democracy and finds fault with other parties for failing to do so. If democracy within parties equals open entry at the bottom and a rise based on merit-performance-leadership through the ranks to the very top, the BJP and certainly the Communist parties are robust democratic organisations. Democratic centralism, a fundamental organising principle of Communist parties, is probably the most transparent and consequently accountable mechanism adopted by major political parties in India, regardless of the conventions of criticism heaped on the Marxists for being rigidly hierarchical and centralising authority in a politburo and functioning through a collective leadership routine that can appear excessively controlling but is nevertheless a consultative process. Fixing dissenters by removing them from party posts or even power as has happened in Karnataka or in Punjab, of abruptly changing chief ministers in Uttarakhand — Tirath Singh Rawat lasted 116 days before he was replaced by Pushkar Singh Dhami — are confirmation that political parties despite their commitment to democracy in India have very little commitment to democratic functioning as a fundamental internal requirement for running their outfits.