Defectors should be banned for 6 years: Quraishi

 For the Madhya Pradesh government, tottering in the wake of 22 legislators resigning from the Congress, the anti-defection law is back into focus once again. Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi has said that this law needs a tweak and defectors should be banned from contesting elections for 6 years.

"Voters feel cheated after an elected legislator jumps ship midway. This weakens democracy," said Quraishi adding that in Madhya Pradesh people voted for the Congress, but the other party bought the lawmakers using money power. "Money is running India's democracy today," he said.

The anti-defection law was enacted in 1985 to put an end to political defections due to reward of office or other similar considerations. Only one third of a party splitting is deemed valid under the law.

"Anti-defection laws have proved to be ineffective and ultimately it amounts to fraud on the voters because their mandate gets defeated by this defection game," Quraishi told IANS.

He said that such a practice is undemocratic. "Goa, Manipur and Karnataka twice, where majorities were converted into minorities with the game of 'aaya ram gaya ram' and now it is happening in Madhya Pradesh. Here the case is a bit different because this time it's not money but the fact that he (Scindia) was annoyed with his party."

"Turncoats or defectors should be banned from contesting elections for six years. They should also not be made ministers for the same period," Quraishi added.

The Congress in Madhya Pradesh is witnessing chaos after Jyotiraditya Scindia's departure, and those leaders, who have any say in the Congress, have also started leaving the party.

Congress state unit secretary Sunil Tiwari has written to the party's interim president Sonia Gandhi, saying "some leaders have made the Congress their private institution and when Jyotiraditya Scindia took up this issue and started objecting in the interests of the party and the workers, he was suppressed." IANS