What Is Happening To Indian Politics..???

With the elections nearby this year, let us have a brief look about what things are going wrong in Indian politics.....

Do you know that the MPs and MLAs you elect do not represent your interests in the Parliament and the State Assemblies respectively? Or rather theycannot?And that our government is inherently undemocratic?

The anti-defection law inserted into the Constitution by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1985 basically ensures that.

The law (rather constitutional law) states that an MP/MLA belonging to a particular party would be disqualified if he “votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by the political party to which he belongs or by any person or authority authorised by it in this behalf.”

So, for example, you’re a BJP MP from Mumbai and the central government introduces a bill that will essentially shut down the local trains in the city. Now, shutting down Mumbai’s local trains means shutting down Mumbai itself.

Can you, as a responsible MP from your state, decide to vote against such a Bill? Logic and democratic values say you should. The anti-defection law says you cannot. And if you do, as I said, you will be disqualified from the Lok Sabha. You will be considered a defector.

Remind me again why do we vote MPs from each constituency?

Now, why is it inherently undemocratic?
A lot of the times, a Bill that is introduced into the Parliament often is a reflection of the party’s ideals and views rather than that of the government’s. It is no secret that in India, governments are run by parties and not elected members.

For example, someone like Amit Shah or Mohan Bhagwat have considerable influence over the party and a bill aligned with their views if introduced in the Parliament, will pass into an Act if the BJP has a majority in both the Houses. This is because not a single MP from the majority will be able to vote against the Bill legally.

So, how democratic is our democracy when our elected representatives are not allowed to think and debate and vote over a bill according to what they think is right for the people they represent?

Is it the same everywhere?
Nope.
The position of the party whip is just a relic in Indian democracy now but in other countries like the USA (Presidential democracy) and the UK (Parliamentary democracy and quite similar to ours) the party whip has an actual job.

This is why he is called a whip. He ‘whips’ them into the party line.

His job is toconvinceelected members of his party to vote for or against a bill that is important to the party. The whip, often times, even cuts deals with such elected members with regards to funding certain programs in his constituency to get him to vote for the bill in exchange.

Case in Point:

1. The Republican controlled US Senate tried to do a partial repeal of Obamacare, but it failed because three senators from the Republican party voted against it.

2. Such a thing could never have happened in India.

3. As many as 84 MPs belonging to the Labor Party of UK (which headed the government) voted against Britain invading Iraq in 2003.

4. Again, could never have happened in India.

The point I am trying to make is, the anti-defection law is killing Indian democracy bit by bit, like a python strangulating its prey with every breath the latter takes.

It is killing the culture of healthy debates over any bill because there is no incentive to take part in a debate because ultimately you will vote for the bill as your party wishes.

It means, a member of the opposition can rarely get the bill introduced by him to pass because he cannot get the few votes he needs from the ruling party to have a majority.

It means we will never see impassioned speeches like this
where a member of the opposition in UK is trying to convince his own party to vote for the government’s decision to conduct airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.

It means you will never see hair-raising, historic moments like this
where Republican senator John McCain casts the deciding vote against his own party with a brain tumor lodged in his head.

It means our democracy is creating a culture of unintelligent, mute, obsequious parliamentarians who are now simply reduced to being glorified yes men and yes women, following their party line like slaves.

It means a small group of primarily unelected people will decide the course of the nation with no scope of dissent or honest criticism either from the opposition or from within their own party.

It means special interest groups and rich business tycoons with humungous empires can literally befriend one or two of the most influential people at the top and sit back and relax as their agenda unfolds in front of their own eyes.

Now, the whole purpose of the anti-defection law was to prevent horse tradings and political defections; but look around folks. Who are we kidding? Horse trading and MP/MLA poaching have been going on as successfully after the law was passed, as it was before it.

Of course, this isn’t the only thing that is wrong with our democracy, there are many. But this is something that could be solved very easily only if the parties at power have the will to do so.

But they will not. Because it is against their interests. Repealing it will mean the handful of people at the top will lose control of their party (the Gandhi family for example) and God forbid they ever let that happen!