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The laws notwithstanding, politicians have their own rules of the game. What happened in Jharkhand � and in Goa before that � shows how even the new anti-defection law can be bent in the race for power. When the law was enacted last year through the 91st amendment of the Constitution, it was generally hailed as an answer to the old game of defections. But the developments in both Jharkhand and Goa exposed the grey areas that party-hopping politicians could still exploit to their advantage. The 10th schedule of the Constitution, referred to in the new law, is categorical on two things. First, it says that an elected member of parliament or a state assembly will be disqualified if he or she defies the whip of the party on a vote or abstains from it. Second, the members who are elected as independents will be disqualified if they join any political party after the election. In accordance with the law, therefore, Mr Enos Ekka of the Jharkhand Party should have been disqualified for defying the directive of his party�s president, Mr N.E. Horo, to support the United Progressive Alliance during the vote of confidence in the state assembly. The same logic should have applied to the UPA members who abstained from voting. In Goa, the double defection of Mr Filipe Neri Rodrigues, who was elected as an independent and supported the Bharatiya Janata Party briefly before joining the Congress, raised similar questions. The issues that the events threw up point to two things. One, there seems to be a further need to clarify the grey areas in the new anti-defection law. Two, a system has to be in place to prevent the speakers of the state assemblies from colluding with errant politicians. Obviously, no law designed to stop the elected members from subverting the mandate can be effective if the speakers are part of the subversion. The need to create such a system is particularly relevant at a time when fractured mandates are becoming the order of elections. Also, the disqualification of an errant member must not be postponed too long so that it becomes ineffective. In case the speakers themselves violate the law, it could be a good idea to give the Election Commission the power over such disqualifications. The stalemate in Jharkhand may have ended with Mr Arjun Munda winning the trust vote. But some basic questions on the health of the Indian democracy remain unanswered. |
- The Telegraph
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