In these extraordinary times with COVID-19 raging, the concerted efforts of the government should have been solely on battling the dreaded virus. But amidst this global crisis, the BJP has been brazenly engaged in the malaise of toppling duly elected State governments.
After Madhya Pradesh, it is now Rajasthan with Jharkhand next in line and this horse trading may then land in Maharashtra too. The BJP with its now huge money Power has been engineering defections with the convenient assistance of the CBI, ED and IT which have all lost their autonomy. Ironically the Pandemic is cited as a handy reason not to hold sessions of the legislature but the politriks of defection is going on galore. The Anti-defection law came into force in 1985 to deter the endemic of political defections by legislators motivated with the lure of office and monetary gains. The intent of the law was to prevent corruption by way of horse-trading. MPs and MLAs should be debarred from holding public office for five years and from contesting the next election if they defect. Our Goa may be India’s smallest State but has become a laboratory for every possible political experiment and has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. We have shown the nation the ways and means to circumvent the Anti- Defection law, with political prostitution and party turncoats at its very hilt. Ethics should always be an integral part of politics. Citizens demand ethical behaviour from the political leadership. They expect leaders to make moral judgements of process and policy where transparency and zero tolerance to corruption and nepotism will be paramount. Lawmakers have a fundamental and moral duty to lead by example and must never be law breakers or abuse the trust that people have vested in them. Authentic Leadership can only be practiced through ethical Governance. The late American President, John F Kennedy declared ‘the basis of effective Government is public confidence and that confidence is endangered when ethical standards falter or appear to falter’. These wise words have proved to be prophetically true of our nation currently lacking in authentic leadership and good, effective Governance. Aires Rodrigues Advocate High Court C/G-2, Shopping Complex Ribandar Retreat, Ribandar – Goa – 403006 Mobile No: 9822684372 Office Tel No: (0832) 2444012 Email: airesrodrigu...@gmail.com Or airesrodrig...@yahoo.com You can also reach me on Facebook.com/ AiresRodrigues Twitter@rodrigues_aires www.airesrodrigues.com