Political Diary
New Delhi, 16 January
2024
Speaker Speaks But…
DEPOLITICISE OFFICE
By Poonam I Kaushish
Fatigued and bored of next week’s consecration of Lord Ram
at Ayodhya ? Flip attention to the west coast where a first rate emotion-filled
politico-drama is being enacted. Over Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Narwekar
taking over 18 months to rule the legislative wing of Shiv Sena led by Chief
Minister Shinde with 40 MLAs was the Party and not Thackeray’s faction, but
refused to disqualify his 16 legislators.
But post decision, given the high stakes, this order has
wider implications as both derive legitimacy from their association with late
Babasaheb Thackeray and the Party unit. Undeniably, the Speaker’s ruling has
lobbed the ball back to the Supreme Court as it is on slippery grounds when
tested against the anti-defection law which is built around a Party, not the
legislative unit.
Narwekar
maintained he could not ascertain which faction is the “real” Party since the Sena
Constitution and leadership structure of 1993 did not provide conclusive
answers and discounted Thackeray’s plea that Sena’s amended 2018 Constitution
made him Party Chief. He also ignored Supreme Court’s ruling May which held the
legislative unit has no existence independent of the Party as it fields
candidates who contest on Party symbol. Perhaps he based it on Election
Commission’s ruling which granted Shinde the Party symbol.
This
mess started in June 2022 when Shinde split with 40 MLAs dethroned the
Thackeray-NCP-Congress led MVA and formed a Government with Fadnavis’s BJP. Thackeray,
initiated disqualification proceedings and MVA appointed Dy Speaker obliged.
Shinde challenged this in Supreme Court which stayed rebels disqualification
till it heard the case in totality. It allowed Election Commission to decide
which faction would lay claim to original Party.
It is all very well for Shinde to
claim Balasaheb’s legacy but it remains to be seen if he can win over cadres
since the Sena’s inheritance is the late founder’s memory and the Party has
been his extension. Can the new leadership set aside Balasaheb family’s pitch
for his legacy?
At one level the battle should serve
as a warning for individual/family-centric Parties to set their house in order
and streamline functioning including holding organizational elections. At
another, defection has become a part of politics. However, fractured verdicts
do not give licence for a free-for-all politics of gaddi and gaddari which has
become chalti ka nam gaddi, with no
stops in sight!
The
issue is not whether Thackeray’s Sena moves Supreme Court on Narwekar’s
decision as the ruling has politics written all over it, neither that Parties have
used Speaker’s post as lollipop to reward and oblige a Party worker. Or,
whether a political appointee
should continue to be arbitrator in matters pertaining to legislators’
defection? And that it has sounded another death knell of a Constitutional
institution. But why Speaker is so important in the Constitutional
scheme of things?
If a Party splits
the Speaker decides whether it is a “split” or defection case. His ruling is
binding. By this one act he can “destroy” a Party and facilitate another’s
rule. Recall, Chandra Shekhar’s famous split which led to VP Singh’s Government
fall. Worse, its par for the course when MPs-MLAs-Speaker
roles are inter-changed at a drop of a hat. Whereby, ruling Party Ministers,
MPs and MLAs accept Speakership only to exploit the office for richer political
dividends. Whereby, it is increasingly difficult to keep track of Minister’s
becoming Speaker’s and vice versa.
From second
Speaker Ayyangar who became Bihar Governor on his term’s expiry to GS Dhillon
and Manohar Joshi who switched roles from Ministers to Speakers, Balram Jhakar
never concealed his identity as Congressman, Rabi Ray lived up to his Janata
Party’s expectation and Shivraj Patil who post Speakership, lost the
re-election, but was nominated by Congress to Rajya Sabha and anointed Home
Minister. In UPA I Congress MP and Minister Meira Kumar became Lok Sabha
Speaker in UPA II. Today eyebrows are not even raised.
All, conveniently forgetting the
Speaker represents the House, its dignity, freedom and liberty. According to Erskine
May, “The House has no Constitutional existence without him.” He has to ensure
Opposition has its say even as Government has its way. His rulings
and decisions can make or break the ruling Party. His casting vote can swing
the balance either way. Expected to be above Party politics and not the ruling Party’s
puppet.
Besides, his
powers to use, misuse or abuse Anti-Defection Act which
bestows the power of deciding whether a representative has become subject to
disqualification, post their defection on the Speaker offering ample scope to
him to exercise discretion and play political favourites, ignoring the letter
and spirit of the Act.
The entirety of a Speaker’s
decisions can also be an inducement for abuse. During Parliament’s winter
session over 146 MPs were suspended while protesting or during the. monsoon
session 2022 when 27 MPs were suspended. Ditto in 2016 when almost all DMK MLAs
were evicted en masse from Tamil Nadu
Assembly or the violence in erstwhile J&K Assembly resulting in PDP leaders
hurling abuses and pedestal fan at the Speaker, raise crucial questions about our
democracy’s health.
Such suspensions are increasingly
becoming common across Parliament and State Assemblies, with a partisan Speaker
in the vanguard of eroding India’s democratic character. Bringing things to
such a pass whereby a Speaker seems to have acquired a “larger than life image
and role” and has become the primus entre
peri.
A kind of a demi-God who can do no
wrong and whose actions are unquestionable. Forgotten in the quintessential
position, is the Speaker who is essentially servant of the House has fast
become its master, thanks to rules of procedure. Highlighting, falling
standards in conducting legislative business in Parliament and Assemblies and the need to clearly define these.
Undoubtedly, the Speaker’s position
is paradoxical. He contests election for Parliament or State Assembly and then
for the post on a Party ticket, and yet is expected to conduct himself in a
non-partisan manner, all the while being beholden to the Party for a ticket for
the next election.
Confided a former Lok Sabha Speaker:
“We are elected on Party tickets with Party funds. How can we claim
independence? Moreover, even if we resign on becoming Speaker, we would still
have to go back to the Party for sponsorship for next election.”
Where does one go from here? Time to
look afresh at the Speaker’s powers, depoliticize his
office and promote neutrality.
Under Westminster model, Speaker resigns from his Party on his
election and is re-elected unopposed in subsequent elections in the House of
Commons. Lok Sabha and Assembly Speaker’s impartiality is more important as he
has more absolute powers than his House of Commons’s counterpart.
Succinctly, the
Speaker is of the House, by the House and for the House. He has to place himself in a judge’s position, not
become partisan so as to avoid unconscious bias for or against a particular
view thus inspiring confidence in all sections of the House about his integrity
and impartiality.
Late CPM MP
Somnath Chatterrjee is a beacon. He refused to resign as Lok Sabha Speaker after
Left withdrew support to UPA I Government over the Indo-US nuclear deal in July
2008. Saying Speaker’s office was a high Constitutional post and above
politics. Like him we need to adopt the maxim: “Once a Speaker, always a
Speaker.” What gives?----- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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