The political parties are facing a crisis because they are very unpopular and the citizens are indifferent to them. The belief of popular participation is only partly true for India. Political parties do not enjoy much trust among the people in South Asia. In fact they are one of the least trusted institutions all over the world.
Yet the level of participation is higher in India than Canada, Japan, Spain and South Korea over the last decades, the proportion of those who report to be members of political parties in India, has gone up. The proportion of these who say that they feel ‘Close to a political party has also gone up in India.’