• Structural weakness in Indian democracy needs to be addressed urgently

“Poaching legislators is not new to our democracy. The terms ‘Aaya Ram’ and ‘Gaya Ram’ were coined decades ago when political leaders of Haryana adopted the method of enticing elected members of rival parties to cross over to bring down governments. Some sense of shame must have seeped in because there was a lull in such shenanigans for some time till Congress lawmakers shifted en masse to the BJP in Goa in 2019, tempted by the lure of office.”

Very soon, the BJP ranks will be stacked with Congress leaders seeking a lucrative future. After former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan left the Congress and joined the BJP, former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath seems ready to jump the ‘sinking ship’.

The inability of INDIA parties to look beyond their noses has virtually sealed their fate.
Nath had handed over Madhya Pradesh to the BJP on a platter due to his misreading of the voters’ preferences and mishandling of other anti-BJP parties.

Chavan’s standing in Maharashtra politics was visibly on the decline. He had even lost his Nanded seat to the BJP’s Prataprao Govindrao Chikhalikar in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. His father, Shankarrao Chavan, was a highly respected politician who had served as the CM and Union Home Minister. Shankarrao had scruples about corruption which his son did not share.

Chavan has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by his new-found friends. He will have to compete for a ministership with other turncoats from Maharashtra like Narayan Rane, who was another ‘candidate’ for probes by investigation agencies had he not crossed over a few years ago.

The migration of the inglorious from the Opposition to the ruling party has picked up steam before the Lok Sabha polls. Is the BJP’s goal a Congress-mukt polity or an Opposition-mukt one? Starting with those with skeletons in their cupboards, others who hanker for the spoils of office or just want to feel important will gravitate to the winning side. Greed is the guide. The BJP capitalizes on this.

Recently, the AAP-Congress combine was assured of victory in the Chandigarh mayoral poll with 20 votes out of 36. The returning officer invalidated eight votes to ensure the BJP’s win. The Supreme Court had to intervene and order the prosecution of the returning officer. It declared the AAP-Congress candidate as the winner. Before the SC verdict, the BJP, the party that had once proclaimed that it was ‘different’, carried out ‘Operation Lotus’ to make three AAP councilors switch camps.

Poaching legislators is not new to our democracy. The terms ‘Aaya Ram’ and ‘Gaya Ram’ were coined decades ago when political leaders of Haryana adopted the method of enticing elected members of rival parties to cross over to bring down governments. Some sense of shame must have seeped in because there was a lull in such shenanigans for some time till Congress lawmakers shifted en masse to the BJP in Goa in 2019, tempted by the lure of office.

The BJP has sharpened this unethical method to a fine art after tasting blood. In Karnataka, it displaced the Congress government by successfully luring a good number of its legislators to change sides. In Maharashtra, this game is being played out even today. The voters who voted against the BJP have been short-changed. They vote for a particular party on ideological grounds but cannot be sure that those whom the party has chosen to represent them will continue to reflect their aspirations, once elected.

This is a structural weakness of Indian democracy. It needs to be urgently addressed. No legislator or corporator should be allowed to cross over mid-term. If he has concerns about the policies of the party on whose ticket he was elected, he should resign from the Assembly and re-contest on the ticket of his new party. If he is popular in his constituency, he may well win again, but at least those who voted for him or her on ideological grounds will not be let down.

Since the BJP’s new tactic of remaining in power at any cost, fair or foul, has obviously kicked in, it is urgent to restore our good name in the democratic world by devising a mechanism to combat this menace of ‘Aaya Rams’ coming and ‘Gaya Rams’ going for reasons far removed from dissatisfaction with the policies followed by the party which they have decided to discard.

The inability of INDIA parties to look beyond their noses has virtually sealed their fate. After the votes are counted and Modi is back in North Block for another term of five years, expect Opposition leaders to face the music in a much more defined degree. The ED, the CBI and other Central agencies will make their lives uncomfortable. Only those who cross over can expect to be absolved of their sins.

If the BJP gets a two-thirds majority in Parliament, the Constitution will be subject to revision. Women, in particular, will have to conform to a rigid standard of morality. Live-in relationships, which are now common among the urban liberated youth, will be frowned upon, like we have seen in Uttarakhand, whose holier-than-thou Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has introduced the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which restricts choices in love and marriage.

I have no objection to the UCC as long as the objective is to ensure that women are treated on a par with men. The rights of the woman in inheritance of her father’s property and her right to choose her life partner should be upheld. There are myriad related issues like divorce and adoption, but the right to inheritance and the right to choose one’s spouse are paramount.

It is not wise to advise the BJP to desist from accepting tainted members of Opposition parties in its fold. The BJP is on a roll. Modi consecrated the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, secured the release of eight former Navy personnel sentenced to death by a court in Qatar for alleged spying, and inaugurated a Hindu temple in a Muslim-majority country (UAE).

Unfortunately, there are counter-balancing issues. The farmers’ agitation for legal guarantee for procurement at the MSP is one such issue. If the demand is conceded, it will compromise fiscal responsibility. The unabated violence in Manipur is another. The BJP knows the people responsible for the raging fire, but its hands are tied. If the incompetent CM Biren Singh is replaced, the Meitei vote will be in doubt. Reservation for Marathas is yet another issue that defies accepted solutions. It is not going to be an easy ride!

There are many other such problems that Modi will have to solve, but he is postponing action till the Lok Sabha polls are over.
(The author is a former governor, and a highly decorated Indian Police Service officer)