One of India’s most influential leaders, YB Chavan, had variously held important positions like that of the Defence Minister, Home Minister, Finance Minister, External Affairs Minister, and also the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He had propounded extensively on the unhinged phenomenon of partyswitching as had become rampant in the 1960s and 70s with the “Aya Ram, Gaya Ram” case (Haryana legislator, Gaya Lal, had infamously switched three parties in a single day!).

Chavan had worryingly commented, “Politics is the art of the possible ~ but defections make it the art of the profitable.” This curse of amoral politics was not unique to any one specific national or regional party, but cut across the Indian political culture. Various means from the proverbial “stick” to the “carrot” were dangled to trigger party-hopping. Attempts to fix this were initiated with the introduction of the 52nd Constitutional Amendment (1985), adding the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution. The Anti-Defection Law aimed to prevent political instability, curb “horse trading” and essentially protect the voters’ mandate. But stability still eluded Indian politics. The wily politicians became even more creative, brazen, and institutionally organised, to beat the provisions.

From mass resignations instead of defections (e.g., Madhya Pradesh in 2020), invoking the 2/3rd merger rule (Karnataka 2019, and most recently in the Rajya Sabha with AAP MPs), delays by Speakers of the House to disqualify members, re-election via a reset button, voluntarily giving up membership, to even judicial delays ~ the possibilities to beat the system are seemingly infinite and manageable. This effectively leaves the politicians with the only effective recourse of answering to their own conscience, otherwise the constitutional provisions can practically be overridden.

The wise politician of constitutional morality, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had lamented, “Power without principles is like a body without a soul,” whilst musing about opportunistic party-switching. This is not to suggest that the elected representatives need to be “bonded agents” to political persuasions for life. In true democracies they should be able to disagree with their leadership, rethink their views, and change parties if their ideological and personal values are getting compromised. The real tension also ought not to be the debate of individual freedom vs. collective mandate. Shifting parties can logically be construed as violating a mandate under the assumption of a certain partisan flag, but it need not be so, always.

The build-up to the situation, underlying circumstances, timing, and the prima facie optics, are a clear give-away about a candidate’s moral bearing whilst changing parties. This debate has got reignited with the recent en-bloc shifting to the ideologicallyopposite party by seven MPs in the Rajya Sabha of a party including its youthful and popular face, a former international cricketer, and other prominent functionaries. While this move is well within the individual rights of the said members and may even comply with the anti-defection law mandate given the fulfilment of the 2/3rd rule, eyebrows are raised nonetheless.

Again, the circumstances leading up to the dramatic change including telling statements in the run-up, certain raids by enforcement agencies, serendipitous timing with looming elections, and stunningly choreographed coordination which led all seven to join a certain rival party (when there were multiple national and regional options), raises credible concerns. This is not to say that the original party of these seven parliamentarians had not seen earlier exits by prominent leaders. Foundational leaders like Dr Yogendra Yadav, Prashant and Shanti Bhushan, Ashutosh, Kumar Vishwas etc., had almost all cited the same reasons as the current bloc of ostensibly disgruntled leaders ~ centralisation of power.

But these leaders chose not to join parties of the exact opposite ideological anchorage, and instead have remained politically active with their independent status. Some others did join the exact opposite side of the framework ~ but the optics surrounding the clockwork efficiency, totality of migration, and the singular direction for all seven MPs towards one destination is interesting, to say the least. The fact that none of them thought of leaving and seeking a fresh mandate in the name of values (supposedly compromised by the leaders of their original parties) but instead found succor in a political persuasion that they were abusing, accusing, and shaming till now, says a lot.

Historically, given the weak penalties enforced by the voters, the narrative flexibility like “party has changed”, “I am joining for development” etc., shows that despite the sharp, irrefutable, and extremely contradictory rhetoric earlier, these parliamentarians know that they may not just survive, but also thrive. They know that public outrage comes with a short shelf life. Clearly power and survival outweigh all reputational concerns. Hence the much-bandied drop in “following” on social media for the leader of this shifting bloc could be a temporary concern and there are presumably stronger reasons to persist with the move.

This reflects on the individuals and on the parties that they are leaving, as well as on the party that they are joining ~ put simply, there is no party with a difference, whatever be the tagline. Ram Manohar Lohia had once said, “Principles must guide politics, not convenience.” However in the nature of today’s politics, upholding principles is perhaps a handicap. It is a fact that some of the shrillest voices in the political set-up are often those who have jumped ships, and ironically, also amongst the more successful ones. The ease with which the one-time language of “threat to democracy” can suddenly become “partner in development” is at one level funny, but only if it were not at the cost of public monies, integrity, and breach of trust.

The levels of flexibility (read, party-hopping) in Indian politics are far higher than comparable democracies of the USA, UK, France, or even Asian democracies. In Indian politics, ideology is often seasonal, which changes with the winds of power ~ and when loyalty becomes negotiable, morality becomes optional. That is the reality of politicians across all Indian parties, be they national or regional. The larger threat as framed by the father of Indian Constitution, BR Ambedkar, was “Political morality is the foundation on which democracy stands.” Politicians and voters must look into the mirror beyond the partisan lens and ask if their preferred leaders and political parties have been encouraging defections (read, morality) or dissuading the same.

(The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), and former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)

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