Should India Move To Proportional Representation?

Sir after looking at last elections of Lok Sabha and Delhi .. Should India move to proportional representation method? As for case 32% vote share of BJP which is not at all small get neglected in FPTP.

Why was the FPTP introduced?

During the time of drafting Constitution of India there was a debate in the Constituent Assembly, a debate on the kind of election system to be introduced in India.

They decided NO to proportional representation system mainly on 2 grounds:

1) The entire system will be too messy and difficult to understand for our illiterate populations, thereby making the whole system very complex. 2) In a country of such great diversity, it may be very difficult to get stable governments since various sections like caste groups, religious groups and even class groups may form their own groups which get small fractions of vote but with a huge number of such groups, it will be quite difficult to form stable and secure governments which can concentrate on development of India.

Now comes the question - Why does the FPTP continue to be in India?       

1) since 1950's the Congress continued to gain around 35-40% of the popular vote in Lok Sabha elections and probably around the same figure for provincial assembly elections also and managed to form the government, they probably never had the incentive to go for proportional representation system which may have made it difficult for them to form governments, or so they may have thought. Hence, they probably decided to continue with it.

2) most of the regional parties could never gain 50% votes or close to 50% votes in assembly elections of the provinces in which they were the main players, and so they also probably realized that it may not make sense to go in for proportional election system which may be more complex or may require more efforts from them in securing votes for themselves.

So for example, when Samajwadi Party could get roughly 30% of the vote in 2012 Uttar Pradesh elections to form the government there, or when Janata Dal (United) and BJP could together get just 39% votes in Bihar 2010 elections to win 89% seats, even though 61% of people did not vote for them, well, why would you want to tinker with the system?

Even in fptp the second purpose is getting defeated..Fractured mandates and coalition govt has become the norm

Agreed but in PR it will be extreme

PR is more suitable for countries where there is a 2 party system- this point will second d above mentioned "extreme" point

That’s d next point - 3) Congress and BJP, do not expect themselves to be winning 50% vote or close to it in the near term (around 10-15 years probably) and thus may just get close to 30% vote, and not more. So they may also think like regional parties and may just not be interested in complicating things for themselves by going for proportional representation.

i.e.) with improved literacy where ppl can take decision based on logic instead of caste/religion/other criteria.

Democracy is the best system of governance and there can be no substitute for this. Democracy is not a monolithic system. If offers various options to the voters and it also offers many forms of voting system. As I said, with improvement in literacy/education, ppl may switch over to it. It’s evolutionary. For eg, NOTA was not there before but with ppl fighting for it, we r having it today. So PR may come when our democracy reaches that stage of evolution.

Since our constitution makers has decided on parliamentary form of government (due to our exposure during British regime), then head of d state directly elected by d ppl is not ideal.

Those three points are actually d ground reality. However in exams, u mention d pros & cons of both d system and form ur opinion, don’t blame any party.

Therefore is it the political will that's coming in the way of India having PR system?

Exactly - lack of political will but frame ur answer accordingly/polished.