Student Protests Expose Structural Weaknesses in India's Two Major National Parties

India's two dominant national parties, the ruling party and the principal opposition, have both historically struggled with the tension between centralised high-command control and genuine intra-party democracy. The Constitution does not regulate the internal functioning of political parties directly; the Representation of the People Act, 1951 governs their registration and conduct during elections, but leaves internal organisation largely to party constitutions. The Election Commission of India has periodically flagged concerns about inner-party elections not being held as required, but enforcement remains weak.

The era of coalition politics that began after 1989 initially appeared to decentralise power, as regional parties gained bargaining leverage. However, within the two major national parties, the opposite trend took hold: decision-making became increasingly concentrated at the apex, with state-level leaders reduced to implementers of central directives. The NCERT Political Science curriculum identifies the decline of the Congress system from the late 1960s onward as the starting point of this centralisation dynamic, as the party high command began overriding state-level preferences to retain national coherence. The ruling party replicated and intensified this model after gaining a strong parliamentary majority.