KOZHIKODE: Advocating a presidential system for a better governance in the country, former union minister and senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the Anti-defection law has a negative impact on democracy as it reduced the voting power of people’s representatives.
“Now a representative does not have the right to vote on his conscience. He has to vote on what his party says. This law has a negative impact on democracy,” he said in an interactive session about the challenges of democracy, at Kerala Literature Festival here on Saturday.
Incidentally, the Anti-Defection Law contained in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, was introduced by the 52nd Amendment during the tenure of the Congress government headed by Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. This was the result of a thought after the 1967 elections which started the coalition era in India and set off large scale defections in state assemblies.
“A presidential system would be better for India. Our present system has no accountability and is not democratic enough. Presidential system would be good for a better governance,” said Tharoor who was an Under-Secretary General at UN and finished second after Ban Ki moon to the race for the position of UN Secretary General before seeking mandate from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.
Tharoor, who had courted a controversy in 2008 related to national anthem, said the rule to impose the anthem in cinema halls is an unnecessary step.
“You cannot reduce nationalism to just a performance. I can say ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ and I am comfortable with it. But I won’t say it if Amit Shah mandates me to say,” he said adding such an attempt is also a threat to democracy.