It may be termed as horse trading, but in reality it is MLA trading, where Members of the Legislative Assembly are traded like commodities, available to be purchased by the highest bidder. That’s exactly what has happened in Goa, again, as the State has been plunged into the murky world of defection politics that had plagued it for almost a decade and a half from the 1990s onwards. There had been a brief respite from that tumultuous period of aya ram, gaya ram politics, but the ugly spectre has resurfaced, distorting the idea of democracy, and mocking the people who voted for the MLAs, expecting them to uphold the traditions of democracy. 

Our lawmakers may have acted within the ambit of the law, taking all the precautions to ensure that their betrayal of the parent party will not attract the anti-defection law, but such floor crossing is definitely not ethical. With one signature to the resignation letter, the MLAs summarily brushed aside ethics, ideology, loyalty, to prop up the ruling dispensation as it struggles to ensure that its coalition remains in a majority in the Assembly. With three MLAs of the treasury benches now sick and unable to attend an Assembly session, any floor test could have proved disastrous for the BJP and its allies, had any of the regional parties decided to toughen their stand. By reducing the strength of the Congress in the Assembly, the BJP has managed to hold on to a majority, and also increase its bargaining power it has with its allies in any realignment that may occur. 

Ironically, with two Congress MLAs quitting the party to join BJP, at least one of the demands that Congress has made to the Governor over the past few weeks appears likely to be met. The Goa Legislative Assembly is now unlikely to be dissolved anytime soon, and it is a decimated Congress that will ensure this as it slumps from the position of single largest party to share the numbers with BJP. Both are now at 14 and proving its majority in the Assembly will turn that much harder for Congress. For, with Congress reduced to 14 MLAs, the balance of power now stands in favour of the BJP and the latter will now not consider dissolution as an option. 

But in the prevailing circumstances, and if democracy is to be upheld, then dissolution would perhaps be the best option for the State. For, if horse trading is going to ensure a stable government, then Goa does not need a ruling dispensation whose majority has been obtained unethically, and is made up of MLAs who are open to being traded. Goans did not vote for men and women who would change their political allegiance midway through the term, they voted for leaders who would uphold the basic tenets of democracy, who would not even consider betraying the party and their electorate.

The trust that was reposed in the elected representative has been broken. The anti-defection law has not stopped MLAs from crossing the floor, as politicians and political parties have found ways to get around the provisions. It is the people who have to ensure that politicians do not get rewarded for breaking from the parent party by rejecting them when they seek to return to the Assembly in a by-election. If the politician cannot show his maturity, then it is for the voter to display his.