Aquib Jamal E received his MS Dual Degree in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). His research work was supervised by Dr. Aniket Alam. Here’s a summary of his research work on Evolution of Political ideology in India in the first two decades of 21st century:
This thesis revolves around two questions. How have the ideological positions of political parties in India evolved in the 21st century, and what changes are these bringing to the participation of people in democratic processes? Literature on ideology and participation are discussed in the initial part of this thesis. It uses election manifestos published by political parties for the elections from 2004 to 2019 to identify the ideology of political parties. A manifesto coding scheme adapted to Indian conditions was used to categorise manifesto points to different heads based on ideological leaning. The evaluation suggested a shift towards capital and private entrepreneurship, increasing focus on urban areas, changing attitude towards decentralisation depending on the power relations. Political parties showed a left leaning view on social affairs while positions varied from central right to left on economic and political affairs. The political parties are becoming more inclusive of different sections of the country though the trend is not consistent. To identify participation, the focus was given to Muslim participation. Detailed election results published by the Election Commission of India from 1977 to 2019 was used to identify participation in elections. Muslim names were identified using a code. Geographical distribution was mapped using QGIS. Muslim participation increased consistently from 1991 to 2014 before dropping in 2019. The participation is largely through recognised political parties than as minor groups or independents. Muslim identity based political parties and Islamic parties are trying to spread the influence geography wise and vote wise. But they remain minor players in relation to Muslim participation where recognised political parties which are not based on Muslim identity fields more number of candidates