UF to amend anti-defection law
Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The United Front government plans to amend the anti-defection law in order to discourage defections from political parties.
Top government officials told Rediff On The NeT that the initiative stemmed from the Uttar Pradesh imbroglio, where the Bharatiya Janata Party government notched up a majority in the state assembly by causing defections from the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Janata Dal.
Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral has already forwarded a request to the law ministry which, in consultation with the Union parliamentary affairs ministry, has drawn up draft proposals in this regard.
The proposals were to be discussed by the UF steering committee
meeting last Tuesday but could not be taken up, the officials said. These proposals
will now be discussed at its next meeting.
The UF government has proposed three amendments to the anti-defection law. The first is that the breakaway group has to furnish ''ideological proof'' regarding the defection to the parent outfit. If the defectors fail to do this, they should be immediately disqualified as legislators.
The second proposal is that the defectors should not be made ministers. The Left parties, however, feel the defectors should be disqualified from being made ministers for one year. Regional parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, Tamil Maanila Congress and Telugu Desam Party reportedly back the Left viewpoint.
The third proposal is that defections should be a one-time affair and not a continuous process. Significantly, former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil had ruled that a defection should be completed within a fortnight.
The officials pointed out that as the experts in the law and parliamentary affairs ministries had hurriedly drafted the proposals, they should deemed to be in the embryonic stage. A decision should be taken only after the steering committee discusses them, the officials said.
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