Indian National Congress
The
Indian National Congress (abbreviated
INC, and commonly known as the
Congress) is one of the two major
political parties in India, the other being the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world.
The party's
modern liberal platform is largely considered
center-left in the
Indian political spectrum. Founded in 1885 by members of the
occultist movement
Theosophical SocietyAllan Octavian Hume,
Dadabhai Naoroji,
Dinshaw Wacha,
Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee,
Surendranath Banerjee,
Monomohun Ghose,
Mahadev Govind Ranadeand
William Wedderburn—the Indian National Congress became the leader of the
Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million participants in its struggle against
British rule in
India. After
independence in 1947, it became the nation's dominant political party, led by the
Nehru-Gandhi family for the most part; major challenges for party leadership have only recently formed.
In the
2009 general elections, the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the
Lok Sabha,
with 205 of its candidates getting elected to the 543-member house.
Consequently it, along with a coalition of allies called the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA), was able to gain a majority and form the government.
Ideology and policies
Historically, the party has favored farmers, laborers, labor unions,
and religious and ethnic minorities; it has opposed unregulated business
and finance, and favored progressive income taxes. However, in recent
years the party had adopted
centrist economic and
social democratic agenda. Today, the INC advocates
neo-liberal policies which includes populism, social liberalism, secularism and
free enterprise system with government regulations such as
public–private partnership
(PPP) model. Though it strongly believes in eradicating poverty,
illiteracy and strongly supports the weaker section of the society.
Social policy
Social policy of the INC is based on Gandhian concept of
Sarvodaya
(upliftment of all sections of the society.) In particular INC gives
special emphasis on the welfare of the economically and socially
disadvantaged sections of the society. This includes "affirmative
action" reservations for weaker sections of the society in education and
employment, emphasis on employment generation for rural population
(through schemes such as National Rural Employment Generation Scheme)
etc. The party supports family planning with birth control but opposes
elective abortion, in particular sex selective abortions and late term abortions.
Economic policy
Traditionally, Economic policy of the INC emphasized on the
importance of the public sector aimed at establishing a "socialistic
pattern of society". However, since the
economic liberalizations
initiated by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister in the early
1990s, the economic policy of INC has been changed somewhat and it is
now adopted
free market
policies, though at the same time it is in favour of taking a cautious
approach in proceeding with liberalization to ensure that the weaker
sections are not affected too hard by the liberalization process.
Foreign policy
Traditionally,
nonalignment has been the bedrock of the foreign policy of the INC.
