It is almost fifty-six years since India had awoken to freedom. And our Constitution gives us a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular Democratic Republic. These words are enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution. Democracy means power to the people and power to the people means Citizens' Right to elect representatives for the governance of the country. Democracy and election are synonymous or in other words these two are the two sides of the same coin. As we are living in a democratic country, we ought to cast our vote after every five years (if there is no mid-term election). It is our obligation to our democratic set up.
The first elected Parliament came into being in May 1952, half a century ago, but the tragedy in our Indian democracy is that the behavior of the elected representatives becomes more and more rude, flirts and power hungry. Split in a party or defection of the legislators, change of sides, withdrawal of support became common phenomena with the coming of coalition era. Our systems of election have been wading through the dirty water of corruption for the past few decades.
The process of choosing representatives is more and more narcissistic process of me, my men, my constituency rather than my State or my country. The theory, 'first to win from my constituency' have forced many MPs and MLAs to focus their concentration only to their constituency in order to be elected again and again. There is nothing of devoted, committed people to be elected in election not only for five years but all the time.
But in order to win elections, in the quest for power, the Parliament or the Legislative Assemblies should not be a den of defectors.
This is the reason behind the annexation of another schedule known as 'The Tenth schedule' in the Constitution which is widely known as Anti-Defection Law.
In the existing Anti Defection Act, there is a provision to allow 'bulk defection' and it is taken as a legal split of a political party. If the violation of the whip is by one third of the strength of the parliamentary or the Legislature Party, there could be no disqualification - that means one third of the MPs or MLAs of a political party have the right to split and form a new political party.
This is the drawback in the existing Anti-Defection Law. MPs and MLAs for defection are not available in retail but available in whole sale. This encourages splits in political parties. So we have seen the splits of many political parties and birth of new political parties, majority of them having the alphabetical suffix to their parent parties.
The Union Cabinet in a meeting on the 24th April this year, chaired by the Prime Minister had decided to curb 'bulk defection' through legal splits by amending the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution by deleting the Para three of the schedule that pertains to exemption form disqualification in case of splits.
The existing Tenth Schedule had failed to achieve the goal of checking defections and demands have been made from many quarters from time to time. The Dinesh Goswami committee on electoral reforms, The Law Commission Report and the Constitution Review Commission had already recommended the deletion of the Para that recognized splits.
The NDA Government at the Centre has hinted at strengthening the Anti-Defection Law and determined to bring legislation in this regard in this current session itself.
Under the new amendments, the defectors should be debarred to hold any public office of a Minister or any other post of profit till they win the next election that is till the defector is re-elected.
According to KN Bhatt, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court, Former Additional Solicitor General of India, the provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution should be amended specifically to provide that all persons defecting - whether individually or in groups from the party or the alliances of parties, on whose ticket they had been elected, must resign from their parliamentary or assembly seats and must contest fresh elections. He further holds the view that the power to decide questions as to disqualification on ground of defection should vest in the Election Commission instead of in the chairman or speaker of the House concerned.
There is every possibility of passing the Bill of Amendment of the Anti-Defection Law if it is brought in the current session for discussion. The Congress expresses its willingness to support the Bill and why not, the tenth schedule of the Constitution was annexed during the regime of Rajiv Gandhi with an aim to cleanse the electoral process.
The passage of a Constitutional Amendment requires a separate vote in each House. Further the requirement is for a two third majority which will be easy for NDA if Congress supports the Bill.
On the other side of electoral process, the Election Commission of India is doing its best to steer democracy in India into a right course. There are many new Do's and Don'ts which have gripped many candidates and political parties like a vice during the time of election. In fact we are now at a key turning point in our history of democratic process of election.
In the coming elections, most probably in the coming Lok Sabha Elections, many front pages of the newspapers will be occupied by the bio-datas of the candidates, their past records, their source of income since it has becomes mandatory of each candidate to file an affidavit showing all these things and the copies of the affidavit should be made available to the print and electronic medias.
Let us hope that the amendment bill pass without any hindrance in this session so that the days of Aya Ram Gaya Ram come to an end.
‘SPF,
DPA and Anti-Defection Law’
‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’ – This maxim holds true for all the time for all the heads that wear a crown and for all the hands that hold a scepter and the head of our Chief Minister Ibobi is not an exception. Uneasy lies more in his head than the heads of the Chief Minister of other States.
In retrospect, the year 2003 was not altogether a favorable year for Ibobi. Many unfortunate events came hand in hand; many untoward incidents came one after another during the last year. The controversy over the grading of minimum qualifying marks for the SC and ST candidates for MBBS/BDS course, the intrusion of 13 NSCN (IM) men with arms inside the territory of Manipur, the kidnap and murder of Lungnila Elizabeth, the daughter of one of his Cabinet colleagues, these are some of the major events which the Chief Minister wants to forget once and for all.
The Chief Minister had spent many sleepless nights in 2003 in guarding his fort, in trying to calm down the tremor that shook his seat and at the same time to counter the blows inflicted upon him from the Opposition DPA to topple his Government.
But the severest blow from the DPA came in the last week of the previous year. All fingers were crossed, all eyes were focused on the Chief Minister’s Bungalow and it was the exception of all from a street vendor to an erudite scholar that the fall of SPF was eminent and there would be a new Government in Manipur in 2004.
The scathing attack of the Opposition DPA to snatch away some Ministers (almost all the MLAs in the SPF are Ministers) from the ruling SPF was so great that O Ibobi had no alternative but to deport some of his Minister with whom he had the suspicion of having divided loyalty both on the SPF and the DPA and could be lured away by the latter to outside the State under the careful eyes of his trusted lieutenants. During the blows of the Opposition, he hid like a snake coiling its body around its head while exposing its whole body to the external blows. Ibobi deliberately forgot the obligation of calling the requisite number of Assembly session in a calendar year. His efforts finally bore fruits.
Now with the coming of 2004, whether it is fortune that favors the brave or not but fortune began to smile on Ibobi. The amendment in the Anti-Defection Law (the 97th Constitutional Amendment) comes as a last savior for Ibobi as well as the SPF. This Amendment deletes Para (3) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution (Anti-Defection Law of 1985) which allows ‘bulk defection’ (one third of the total legislature of a party) as a legal split. In the new amendment the defectors (except those expelled from the party) will not be allowed to hold any Ministerial post on any post of profit till they contest and win a new election.
From now onwards, if any legislator wishes to change sides, he will neither gain the head nor the tail. The importance of a Speaker, who is often labeled as an engineer of defection under the previous defection law has been reduced almost to naught in the new law while the scepter of the party president becomes longer and tougher.
Ibobi is now holding the duel post in the Congress party in the State much to advantage, one leading the Congress Legislature Party as a Chief Minister of the coalition SPF Government and the other, holding the rein of MPCC (I). He can face any challenge in his leadership in the Congress Legislature Party for the time being. The Congress High Command in Delhi will not allow any crisis brewing in the State before the Parliament election, which will only help to tarnish the image of the party.
On the other hand, the Opposition DPA had fallen prostrate. The alliance is now knocked out from the ring bleeding severely and it is unlikely to flex muscle with SPF in the near future. The DPA had been trying its best to topple the SPF (this is what an Opposition party in Manipur ought to be!) and no stone was left un-turned in searching for an inroad to the fortress of the SPF during the last two years. Even at a gentle breeze which is not enough to move away the ringlet curl from a girl’s cheek the DPA took it as a good omen coming in their way
They had had the chance. In June 2003, when Arvind Dave took charge from Ved Marwah as the Governor of the State, when Home Minister ID Swamy lashed the Chief Minister and his SPF with the remarks that the SPF Government had no moral rights to continue, there was a bright chance of BJP-led Government in Manipur. This misunderstanding between Imphal and Delhi offices of the BJP was that, the BJP State unit built castle in the air that Article 356 will be used by the Centre to install a BJP led Government in Manipur while the Centre insisted that the State unit had to muster majority by hook or by crook. The NDA in the Centre did not want to repeat the failure of dismissing Rabri Government in Bihar.
So, RK Dorendra, though he cleverly managed to rope in an MSCP MP to merge with BJP, had succeeded in becoming DPA leader backed by Federal Party which has more sitting MLAs than the BJP, the seat of Chief Minister still eluded him this time also. As wild goose chase ends, people of Manipur expect a role of good and constructive opposition in ruling the State.
Now the crew of the ship under the captaincy of Ibobi has passed through the rough weather. The foremost duty for him now is to project himself as one of the ablest Chief Minister of the State and does something concrete in the overall development of the State so that he can silence the storm within his Congress party and at the same time lead the State triumphantly from the present messes.
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