MARGAO: Former MLA and senior advocate Radharao Gracias has insisted that only a change in the central law by the Parliament can ensure that there will be no more defections but in the meantime he claims there is a way where this can be achieved to some extent.
In an interview with Herald, Gracias said he and fellow senior advocate Cleofato Almeida Coutinho had proposed what needs to be done to a State Congress leader and that it was in turn communicated to the national Congress leader P Chidamabaram, who however decided not to take their proposal forward.
Referring to the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, Gracias was of the opinion that the existing anti-defection law has to be amended to plug the many loopholes that exist.
“The problem is that these changes can be made only in Parliament but the ruling party at the Centre has been exploiting these loopholes for own benefit and is therefore reluctant to change the law”,” said Gracias.
He stated that it involves filing a particular affidavit followed by certain procedures but said he would not share all the details as it is impractical to do so.
He however listed out four areas with regard to what the law must mandate as a way to not only curb the menace of defections but also to inspire some confidence in the public that the past events are not repeated.
“Firstly the law must mandate that a person must be a member of a political party for a specific period of time before they are eligible for that party’s ticket. Now, such a law would mean that an MLA cannot resign from a political party and contest the elections on a different party’s ticket” said Gracias.
Secondly in case of a split, Gracias said the split must be in the party organisation and the party’s legislative group.
“Thirdly, in the event of a split, no MLA from that split faction, should be able to become a minister or hold chairmanship of any public organisation such as corporations for example,” said Gracias.
For the final point, Gracias said no person shall be able to contest as independent if he was a member of a political party unless a specific time period had lapsed from the time he had ceased to be a member of the party.
He clarified that there would be no issue if a person wishing to contest as an independent had no prior membership with any other political party.
Gracias lamented that Congress had nothing to lose had they followed his advice and added that the condition he had put forward is that if the advice is followed, he and Coutinho take up the matter as he felt ‘high-flying’ High Court and Supreme Court lawyers only give citations instead of applying their mind to finding a solution.
