'Amend law to check Indian political defections' By Ajit Sahi, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) Seventeen years after India framed a law to check political defections, politicians and pundits admit the legislation has failed to rein in politicians willing to switch parties at the drop of a hat. Nowhere is the lacuna more visible than in the western state of Maharashtra, where a string of political flip-flops has pushed the government to the verge of collapse. With both the ruling and opposition groupings claiming a right to rule the state on the strength of their numbers in the splintered state assembly, all the major parties have been forced to hide their legislators to prevent them from deserting. Those who have defected are being guarded round the clock by the new political masters. It looks as though the state's ruling Congress party and its ally the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are not willing to trust their own legislators. Even the opposition Shiv Sena and its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, are keeping their flock under scrutiny. "Politicians have very low moral values that reflect in their shameless defections," said V.B. Singh, director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. "The anti-defection law has failed and needs to be changed." Added Congress leader Anil Shastri: "There is a total degeneration of values, and there is no such thing as integrity or straightforward politics. The anti-defection law has outlived its purpose and urgently needs to be made stringent." The comments came even as the leading parties in Maharashtra packed off their legislators to different cities outside the state to keep them under virtual custody, fearing they would otherwise be "bought over" by rival parties. The Congress-led government of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has been left tottering this week after a string of defections reduced it to a minority. Deshmukh must win a trust vote June 13 to stay on in power. As three NCP and one Congress legislator crossed over to the opposition Sena-BJP combine, the two leading ruling partners sent their legislators to the adjoining Congress-ruled states of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Congress legislators arriving at the airport in Karnataka capital Bangalore Thursday told reporters that they were on a "sight-seeing" trip. But clearly they had been moved away from the close range of Sena-BJP. They will return to Maharashtra capital Mumbai ahead of the June 13 trust vote. The Sena and the BJP are also planning to send off their 124 legislators to the neighbouring BJP-ruled Goa state to avoid retaliatory Congress-NCP poaching amid widespread charges and speculation that big money has been changing hands. Analysts say the state of affairs in Maharashtra points out the drawback in a landmark anti-defection law pioneered by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. In a bid to check rampant defections that caused much political instability in India, Gandhi enacted a law that barred any defection until a third of a party's MPs or legislators decided to part ways. The law did slow down defections. Now more and more people are arguing that the main loophole in the law - that defection by a third of MPs or legislators is permitted - should go. Said columnist Sudheesh Pachauri: "A defecting legislator or MP must resign his seat if he leaves his party on whose ticket he was elected. If he is as popular as he thinks he is, the people would elect him again." Congress leader Shastri agreed: "This change in the anti-defection law is a must to end the menace of defections. Every defector must go back to the electorate to get the voters' approval for his decision." Admitted Singh: "The anti-defection law has in a way become a facilitator for those who want to defect." Shastri said the law had not been designed to meet the challenges of a multi-party era. In 1985, when it was framed, the Congress was the dominant political party, and luring a third of such a large party was thought near impossible. "But now there are parties with just half a dozen MPs and legislators in the house. The one-third clause makes no sense for them." Analysts say the cancer of defections reflects a complete erosion of principled politics that prevailed in the country during the freedom struggle against British rule. "The days of Mahatma Gandhi and ethical politics are gone. Now it is all money power. Politicians are willing to be bought and sold like in a fish market," rued Singh. Added columnist Pachauri: "Opportunism has become a positive value. Principles are now considered impractical." --Indo-Asian News Service =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
