UPSC Mains 2013 GS Paper 2 Q10: model answer
UpdatedPressure group politics is sometimes seen as the informal face of politics. With regards to the above, assess the structure and functioning of pressure groups in India.
What the question wants
Assess how pressure groups in India are organised and how they work, in the light of their being politics' informal face.
How to structure it
Assess structure and functioning: types first, then methods, then a judgment.
- Meaning
- Structure and types
- How they function
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Assessment
How to think it through
Parties seek power; pressure groups seek influence. In India the line is blurred because most big groups are wings of parties. So the 'informal face' is often the same face wearing a different cap. Show both the independent ones and the party-tied ones.
Model answer
When the Bharatiya Kisan Union under Mahendra Singh Tikait camped on Delhi's Boat Club lawns in 1988, half a million farmers won concessions without contesting a single seat. That is the informal face of politics: influence without office.
Structure
- Business: FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM.
- Trade unions: INTUC, AITUC, BMS, CITU, most linked to parties.
- Peasant groups: BKU, All India Kisan Sabha, Shetkari Sanghatana.
- Professional bodies: IMA, Bar Councils.
- Caste, religious, linguistic and student groups; and anomic movements that rise suddenly, like India Against Corruption (2011).
Functioning
- Lobbying ministries and parliamentary committees with memoranda and data.
- Pre-budget consultations, which business chambers use expertly.
- Agitations, bandhs and dharnas.
- Litigation and PILs.
- Media campaigns and, now, hashtags.
Strengths
They carry information to the state, give voice to interests that parties ignore and keep governments alert between elections.
Weaknesses
- Many are party appendages, so they mobilise for the party, not the member.
- Uneven power: organised business outweighs unorganised workers.
- Violent methods and short-lived causes.
- Little transparency on funding; India has no lobbying law.
Assessment
Pressure groups deepen democracy when they are autonomous and transparent. A lobbying disclosure register and open consultation on draft laws would bring the informal face into daylight. Until then, the loudest voice, not the most just one, will usually win the ear of the ministry.
Draw: A ladder: memoranda, consultations, media, litigation, protest, from quiet to loud.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
interest articulation, institutional, associational, anomic groups (Almond), BKU, FICCI/CII, party affiliation, lobbying regulation, pre-legislative consultation policy 2014.
Where most answers lose marks
- Listing types without 'functioning' or without an assessment.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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