PANJIM: The verdict of the High Court of Bombay at Goa on Thursday upholding the two-third split in the legislature party has opened Pandora’s Box with political parties apprehending such splits in the future and reinforcing the need to amend the Anti-Defection law.
Eminent lawyers, former legislators, and former speakers feel the need to tighten the Anti-Defection law to stop legislators defecting from one political party to another party mostly for the lust of power and hefty money.
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Former Deputy Chief Minister Dayanand Narvekar, also a former Speaker, who was involved in toppling three Congress governments in the past was of the strong opinion that there has to be a split in the legislature party and the original party. He said, “The legislature party is not the party because it is the political party, which nominates candidates for elections and gets them elected. Therefore, everything depends on the parent party, which may sometimes believe or agree with the legislature party to merge. But legislature party cannot be independent of a parent political party.”
Narvekar said that the High Court has thought otherwise and has not appreciated the functioning of the original political party. He apprehends that after the Assembly results are declared on March 10, many MLAs-elect will be emboldened by the court verdict to change sides. The High Court judgment has to be challenged or else it will have repercussions across the country.
Narvekar believes that during his time, MLAs including himself had not defected like the ‘wholesale’ defection by the 10 Congress MLAs to the BJP. “We always formed a splinter group within demanding change in leadership, but we never defected or merged with another party like what 10 MLAs did more than two years ago.”
Former Goa Assembly Speaker Tomazinho Cardozo says that he had disqualified 10 Congress MLAs in 1998 on grounds that they had split from the legislature party and there was no split in the original party. But the court set aside my order after the MLAs proved that there was a split in the party too” However in the case of the 10 Congress MLAs who merged into BJP, the Congress Party has not confirmed any split.
Cardozo said the Anti-Defection law needs to be tightened in such a way that a defecting MLA cannot be inducted as a Minister or given chairmanship of semi-government corporations till the completion of the term.
Senior Advocate Joaquim Reis said that though he had not read the High Court judgment, the Anti-Defection Act requires debate by Parliamentarians and ensure whether a MLA or MP changing sides should be debarred from contesting for at least one election cycle.
Adv Clovis Da Costa, former President of the South Goa Advocates Association said that the High Court order will now become a license for MLAs to engineer a two-third split and merge in another political devoid of any party ideology.
Da Costa wants that the defectors should be debarred from entering the electoral fray at least for a period of six years. The voters should also reject defectors and teach them a lesson.
