Which among the following is correct about the ‘non-congressism’ phenomena?
(A) Parties that were entirely different and disparate in their programmes and ideology got together to form anti-Congress fronts.
(B) The pro-poor Congress rule was considered to be undemocratic by Jayaprakash Narayan.
(C) Inexperience of Indira Gandhi and the internal factionalism within the Congress provided an opportunity to topple the Congress.
(D) The coming together of the non-Congress parties was necessary for reclaiming democracy.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (C) and (D) only
(A) Parties that were entirely different and disparate in their programmes and ideology got together to form anti-Congress fronts. Correct. They saw that the division of their votes kept the Congress in power.
(B) The pro-poor Congress rule was considered to be undemocratic by Jayaprakash Narayan. Incorrect. The argument was given by the socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, who named the strategy ‘non-Congressism’, and he called Congress rule undemocratic and opposed to the interests of ordinary poor people, not pro-poor.
(C) Inexperience of Indira Gandhi and the internal factionalism within the Congress provided an opportunity to topple the Congress. Correct.
(D) The coming together of the non-Congress parties was necessary for reclaiming democracy. Correct. This was Lohia’s theoretical argument in defence of the strategy.
NCERT (2025-26): “Non-Congressism … Parties opposed to the Congress realised that the division of their votes kept the Congress in power. Thus parties that were entirely different and disparate in their programmes and ideology got together to form anti-Congress fronts in some states and entered into electoral adjustments of sharing seats in others. They felt that the inexperience of Indira Gandhi and the internal factionalism within the Congress provided them an opportunity to topple the Congress. The socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia gave this strategy the name of ‘non-Congressism’. He also produced a theoretical argument in its defence: Congress rule was undemocratic and opposed to the interests of ordinary poor people; therefore, the coming together of the non-Congress parties was necessary for reclaiming democracy for the people.” |