Southern States - Kerala

Amend anti-defection law: V.P. Singh

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM MARCH 29. The former Prime Minister, V. P. Singh, has called for changes in the anti-defection law to ensure that a person who gets elected as the nominee of one party does not get to retain his seat if he or she crosses over to another party.

Addressing delegates to the 18th Party Congress of the CPI here today, Mr. Singh said the present practice of deciding the nature of defections based on the percentage of MLAs or MPs who cross over to another party was meaningless.

``Any person who defects must be required to go back to the people and get a fresh mandate. Power is not with him. He is only a representative. He is like the postman who has no claim on the money order he delivers,'' Mr. Singh said.

Mr. Singh touched upon the question of defections in the context of the delay in the formation of a Government in Uttar Pradesh and said it was very likely that the next Government in the State would be formed through `auctions'. The auctions had already begun and money bags were ready to purchase MLAs turning democracy into a tool for big money. ``What kind of democracy will it be when the crown is mortgaged to moneybags?'' he asked and said the middle class would certainly support any move to rid politics of money power.

The former Prime Minister also felt that urgent attention should be paid to the dominance of caste politics so as to bring class issues to the fore. Farmers, workers and youth were now voting according to their caste identity. They must be taught to act on the basis of class, and the dynamics of politics should be built on the basis of economic issues. ``If the voting is going to be on the basis of caste, when will class be recognised?'' he asked.

Mr. Singh said formation of Governments should be just one part of the political action and called for continuous mass movements regardless of the nature of Government in power so that the issues of the people remained in focus. He also sought creation of a national platform for political action. ``Democracy is not a five-year mela. If democracy is to survive, there must be continuous struggle of the people,'' he said.

Pointing out that the country was passing through a very critical period, he said the fundamentals of freedom were under attack. Gandhiji had forged the Indian nation by uniting all sections. ``Now the Indian Rashtra is being attacked by the Hindu Rashtra,'' he said and added that the dangerous theory of action and reaction propagated by the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, would have disastrous consequences. ``Gujarat is what happens when an RSS pracharak heads the Government,'' he said. The Left, he added, had an important role to play in this because it had been consistent in opposing communalism.

Mr. Singh said the compulsion to be competitive in the international market was resulting in the retrenchment of thousands of workers. He suggested that the best option for the country was to arrive at an Indian synthesis of the compulsions of the market and the need to protect the people. This, he said, was what the Chinese had done. Unemployment was on the rise in rural areas and the ranks of the urban poor were swelling. The urban poor were necessary for the upkeep of the cities, but everywhere the attempt was to systematically marginalise them and hound them out. ``Someone must stand up for them. There must be an organised movement to protect the urban poor and the slum-dwellers,'' he said.

He regretted the deterioration in the norms of public life and said it is sad that the nation had drifted away from the `dreams of the freedom movement'.

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