Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Right legislation required to prevent defections' that was published in Newsband

Right legislation required to prevent defections

In the past we had the ‘aaya ram, gaya ram’ days of Indian politics. Since then attempts are being made to prevent mass defection and frequent change of party loyalties. But politicians, for usually self-serving reasons, decide to switch parties. The reason adduced for the switchover is laughable.

Several legislative efforts have been made to curb defections. The 52nd Constitution Amendment provided for disqualification of defectors other than in the case of a split in the party, involving a group of not less than one-third of its members. A later amendment disallowed splits, and provided only for merger in cases where at least two-thirds of the members of one party merged with another party. This too did not prove to be a deterrent,

Defections engineered through unscrupulous means undermine democratic institutions and subvert the people’s mandate. The large scale defection, more likely the manufactured one as sources indicate, obviously to byepass anti-defection law has rocked the boat again.

There should be a Constitutional remedy to the dirty politics of getting elected by one party influence and support mechanism and after successfully getting elected they betray the very party who made them what they are today. They are not fit to represent another party when they were promoted personally, politically and financially by another party.

No legislative measure will work in India. Even courts verdicts are being circumvented by the opportunists. There should be a rule that even if one person or the whole house changes loyalty or switches party or forms new party, elections to the whole state must be held and election expenses recovered from politicians.

The fatal error attached to our anti-defection law was that it was too idealistic in its assumption that 'splits' and 'mergers' in our Assemblies take place on the basis of ideologies or principles. It sought to remedy the malaise caused by 'ayarams' and 'gayarams' who switch loyalties and engage in political barter trade. While individual defections could be treated with the threat of disqualification, it overlooked the fact that group defections can well take place and, as long as they conform to the thresholds set in the law, they can have a field day. This is happening mostly in smaller states, especially in the North East, which are noted for too many groupings or parties based on tribal or other loyalties. They fall an easy prey to political manipulators who are powerful and operate from power centres in Delhi. Courts are hapless witness to these shenanigans in such a situation.

The MLA or MP who was elected from one constituency on behalf of a particular party member, should resign and seek fresh election after defecting the parent party from the same constituency. This shows, the credibility of voters vested with the party or with elected member. This will also give us clean government. This type of legislation should come in to force at the earliest.