Telangana is headed for yet another bypoll with the Supreme Court on Thursday upholding the high court order disqualifying former MLA Danam Nagender under the anti-defection law. The ruling has once again brought to the fore the vexed question of defection and the Speaker’s role in deciding its consequence.
Nagender won at the last Assembly elections on a BRS ticket and soon walked over to the ruling Congress. He then contested the Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket. Apart from him, nine others had also defected to the Congress from the BRS. After repeated raps from the judiciary for delays, Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar dismissed disqualification pleas against all of them, reasoning there was no substantive evidence against the legislators.
However, the high court found the Speaker’s decision on Nagender to be in violation of Article 191(2) and the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. The Supreme Court rightly upheld the verdict, for it is obvious that by contesting on a Congress ticket, Nagender had given up his membership of the opposition party. The development forces us to seriously reconsider whether to let the Speaker function as a quasi-judicial tribunal or have a separate impartial body to adjudicate on defections.
Parliament must deliberate on this crucial issue because defections are rising every year, repeatedly betraying the people’s mandate. It is nothing short of a mockery of democracy. It must be noted that almost all political parties—including the BRS—are guilty of poaching legislators and undermining the anti-defection law.
In the Telangana case, the defecting legislators did take part in Congress activities one way or another. But as their numbers fall well short of two-thirds of the BRS legislature party, they attract the anti-defection law. Since the Speaker has dismissed pleas against them, the ball is in the court. The question now is whether the other turncoats, too, will face disqualification.
The political fallout of the top court’s ruling cannot be exaggerated. A bypoll, that too in Hyderabad, will be an acid test for the Congress with the BRS and BJP trying their best to deliver a blow. With the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections also due, the Congress can ill afford to lose. Whoever wins, the sticking point is that an avoidable election has been thrust upon the people.
