New Delhi: Coming down heavily on the anti-defection law which restricts a lawmaker from expressing his/her opinion on an issue, former Lok Sabha MP Tathagata Satpathy, Thursday, termed the law ‘anti-democracy’ and accentuated that ‘the law has hollowed out the democracy from within’.
Participating in a discussion on ‘Anti-Defection Law and the Whip System’ organised by the PRS Legislative here, the former MP said that it forces a member to react in a certain manner, which should not happen in a mature democracy such as India.
Asserting that the anti-defection law came out of mistrust between party leadership and legislators, Satpahty said the party leadership issues whips due to mistrust and it would not happen if there is inner-party democracy.
“An MP or MLA has the responsibility of representing the diverse constituents who have voted for him. Party leaders don’t trust their members and try to control them in the House through whips,” said Satpathy, adding that a legislator should be answerable to the public before anyone else.
“We need to create a system where we have faith in legislators, first they should be answerable to public, then nation, then party and then leadership,” said Satpathy.
Apart from Satpathy, Lok Sabha MPs Manish Tewari, Sashi Tharoor, Asaduddin Owaisi and Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary took part in the discussion.
Notably, the anti-defection law lays down the process by which a legislator may be disqualified if he either voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or disobeys the directives of the party leadership on a vote.
