CRITIQUING INTERNAL UNDEMOCRACY: ANALYZING PHANTOM POWER’S IMPACT ON INDIAN POLITICAL PARTIES

Abstract

Political parties being instrumental to India's democracy operate as extraconstitutional entities with minimal regulation, leading to pathogenic pathologies such as declining intra-party democracy, rampant nepotism, opaque financing, disconnected manifestos, RTI defiance, and populist “revdi” culture. By analyzing the same, this paper's primary objective is to dissect the regulatory vacuum resulting in erosion of democratic norms, which fosters a sort of oligarchic “phantom power”; wherein high commands eclipse member voices. The secondary objectives include interrogating key manifestations (such as hereditary leadership suppressing talent, top-down manifestos ignoring priorities like jobs and healthcare per ADR surveys) and advancing targeted reforms to instil accountability. This study employs a qualitative doctrinal methodology, synthesizing primary sources such as Law Commission reports, Supreme Court precedents, Election Commission documents, and empirical insights from ADR's 2025 dynastic study and RBI's State Finances analysis. Findings illuminate a metademocratic paradox: undemocratic parties undermine the very system they were ostensibly created to sustain, with nepotism fragmenting polities; resulting in opacity fuelling cynicism (like parties' RTI non-compliance), and revdi pledges risking fiscal distress; which all result in perpetuation of inequality over actual democratic representation. This critique extends Law Commission discourse by quantifying 2024 dynasty trends, urging more participatory models for the 2029 Indian elections.