Manmohan Singh leads a new beginning

The Manmohan Singh-led government distinguished itself for a sustained economic growth, key legislation including the Right to Information Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the historic Indo-U.S. Civil Nuclear Deal.

No one predicted Congress’s return to power. The party, however, formed the United Progress Alliance and led the 14th Lok Sabha to a full term with Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. The tenure saw fierce economic growth despite the looming Global Financial Crisis, and passage of landmark legislations including the Right to Information (RTI) Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Mr. Singh also signed the historic U.S. nuclear deal, elevating India’s position as a nuclear power.

The polls

The polling took place in four phases between April 20 and May 28, 2004, spread across 543 constituencies, 28 States and 7 Union Territories. The number of voters increased by 4.92% in comparison to the 1999 elections; the voter turnout fell by 1.92%, with 58.07% voters participating in the elections. The higher voter turnout was recorded in Nagaland Parliamentary Constituency – a record held for all Lok Sabhas in the history of independent India. There was an increase of 8.88% in the female electorate as well.EVMs made their debut in the electoral process, with the Election Commission rolling out 10 lakh EVMsacross the country. About 8,000 metric tonnes of paper were saved due to EVM use, according to the Election Commission.The number of polling stations, however, reduced from almost 7.7 lakh to 6.87 lakh.

India’s constituency distribution changed too. This was the first election for three newly formed States – Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand. Constituencies thus decreased in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Following a landmark 2002 Supreme Court judgment, contesting candidates for the first time were required to disclose their education, assets and criminal record.

Despite polls predicting a hung parliament, the 14th Lok Sabha presented a mandate to a Congress-led alliance. The verdict was the first since the 1977 general elections to “have upset every electoral calculation and poll prediction”,

The house of the people

The Congress surprised analysts and emerged as the single largest party, with 145 seats and 26.53% votes. It trounced the BJP in parts of Delhi and Gujarat; their alliance with regional parties swept Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Rahul Gandhi contested and won his first election from the family seat of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP took the second place with 138 seats, registering losses in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat. Heavyweights including Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha and Sahib Singh Verma lost their seats. BJP’s senior partners, including All India Anna Dravida MunnetraKazhagam’s Jayalalitha and Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee, “suffered a spectacle debacle”. Janata Dal (United) tasted defeat in Bihar, compensated in party by the Biju Janata Dal and Shiromani Akali Dal in Orissa and Punjab respectively.

The Left parties recorded their best-ever performance in the Lok Sabha, winning over 60 seats. In Kerala, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front won 18 of the 20. There, Congress failed to win even a single seat. The Left also displaced the influential Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (35 seats) and Bahujan Samaj Party (19 seats) emerged as key players, offering a vision of “secular government”.

“Sonia Gandhi has the Prime Ministership unless, for some reason, she chooses to turn it down”, The Hindu reported. Mrs. Gandhi declined the offer; an “inner voice” prevented her from accepting the position, she stated at the time. The other expected contenders were former President Pranab Mukherjee and then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh; the latter was sworn as the PM on May 23, 2004. Mr. Singh would go on to become India’s first Sikh Prime Minister, and the third-longest serving PM after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.Mr. Singh also famously played a significant role in the Indian economy’s liberalisation in 1991.

Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Somnath Chatterjee served as the Speaker of the House from June 4, 2004, to May 30, 2009. Mr. Chatterjee, a 10-time Lok Sabha MP, was widely respected for his intellect, eloquence, and integrity. He famously discontinued the practice of paying for toiletries and tea for official work from the national exchequer.

The politics

The 2004 verdict was clearly a vote against the NDA’s policies rather than a victory for the Congress, The Hindu noted in an analysis. The divisive policies pursued in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, aftermath of the Godhra riots and the infamous “India Shining” campaign sullied their reputation (the India Shining slogan deserved “an award for the worst advertising campaign of the last five years”, an editorial remarked). The ‘Vajpayee factor’ and smear campaigns against Mrs. Gandhi’s foreign origin backfired too.

The Congress sprung to power, leading the 20-member United Progressive Alliance, and receiving support from regional players DMK, Shiv Sena and Rashtriya Janata Dal. A Common Minimum Programme (CMP) was chalked out between the Congress and the Left to outline common goals and ensure inclusiveness in governance. The social and economic reforms were targeted at “aam aadmi” issues. Economic challenges were a key voter concern. “This election was lost by the BJP and its allies – and also Congress where it faced the Left – on livelihood issues,” The Hindu noted. The “one-sided policy of economic liberalisation” did not factor in the livelihood concerns of working people, it wrote.

The agenda

The 14th Lok Sabha holds a chequered legacy. It had the fewest sittings in Parliament’s history at the time (at 332),wasted 24% of its total allotted time and was mired in scandal with the expulsion of 10 MPs for accepting bribes in the ‘cash-for-query’ scam. The 17th Lok Sabhaholds the record of the fewest sittings, with 274 meetings to its name.India saw internal security challenged during this period, with the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Mr. Singh was criticised for his perceived ‘weak’ response.

Mr. Singh-led government passed key economic and social legislations, including the landmark Right to Information (RTI) Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) that ensures 100 days of employment to at least one member of a rural family in a year at minimum wages.Despite the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, India witnessed the fastest period of economic growth rate between 2004 and 2009.

Mr. Singh, notably,signed the epochal agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with the U.S. With the 123 Agreement, the U.S. “acknowledging that India is a nuclear weapons power, agreed to cooperate with it in the area of civilian nuclear energy”, The Hindu reported on July 19, 2005. This spelled an unprecedented crisis for the UPA. The CPI(M) withdrew support from the coalition over the deal; Mr. Chatterjee, a CPI(M) member and Speaker of the House, was later expelled for refusing to step down. The UPA faced, and eventually won, its first confidence vote in July 2008.

The Lok Sabha was dissolved on May 18, 2009.

References

1. Election Commission of India
2. Election Atlas of India: Parliamentary elections 1952 – 2014, edited by Dr. R. K. Thukral
3. The audio and video were taken from Prasar Bharati Archives’ YouTube page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6A96n2YBck and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffcKtZyJmk
4. The Hindu Archives