Congress candidates in Goa were told to swear in front of three Gods that they won’t jump ship

It should be the height of political desperation. The Congress candidates for the Assembly election in Goa were asked to take a pledge of loyalty in front of not one or two but three Gods that if they win the election, they would not leave Congress for five years. It is the leadership’s ‘strategy’ to assure the voters of Goa who appear convinced that voting for the Congress candidates is as good as voting for BJP. The popular perception changed after massive defections from the Congress after the 2017 election. The party, which had won 17 seats in 2017, was eventually reduced to two. The ‘grand old party’ certainly has a compelling reason to appeal to the Maker to keep its flock together. Legislators have switched sides from the party not only in Goa but also numerous other States in the country since 2014. A majority of the defections benefited the BJP. The worst case of defections was in Arunachal Pradesh where 44 legislators, including Chief Minister Pema Khandu, quit the party and joined a regional outfit backed by the BJP. Last November, the Congress saw 12 of its 17 MLAs in Meghalaya defect to the Trinamool Congress. As a result, it lost its status as the principal Opposition party. In 2016, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, along with eight other rebel Congress MLAs, joined the BJP after being disqualified from the membership of the House.

However, it is not just the Congress that is at the receiving end of floor-crossing legislators. In Sikkim, 10 MLAs of Sikkim Democratic Front joined the BJP. In Assam, many BJP legislators and even Ministers have Congress roots. Tripura’s is a similar case. Manipur is no different. Even the JD(U), BJP’s ruling ally in Bihar, was shocked when six of its seven MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh went over to BJP. In the run-up to the current Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, as many as 36 MLAs have switched sides benefiting the Samajwadi Party mostly, but also BJP and RLD. There is nothing to write home about when it comes to morality and ethics helping legislators resist the lure of power or other considerations to switch loyalties. State legislatures in the 1960s and 1970s witnessed several instances of brazen defections. The most glaring is the example of Gaya Lal, an independent MLA from Haryana, who changed parties twice within a few hours and for the third time a few days later. The phrase that describes turncoats, “Aaya Raam, Gaya Ram” immortalised him. The growing spate of defections led to the Anti-Defection Act but legislators took advantage of the myriad loopholes. Legislators switching sides in Karnataka in 2019 found an entirely new way to defect without punishment: They simply resigned before any activity of theirs could lead to their disqualification. Defections subvert democracy. They ridicule people’s mandate. If resignation or re-election is enough to circumvent the anti-defection law, then the law needs replacing. A stronger law can revive a voter’s belief in democracy better than a pledge to Him.