Pul on Collective Conscience

In the year gone by, the easternmost state of India, Arunachal Pradesh, unfailingly hit the headlines time and again, mostly for the wrong reasons. While the charade of democracy manifested itself as a vulgar dance of musical chairs of who commanded the so-called majority support in the assembly, the frequent change in the political equation showed that the democratic process had been entirely subverted.

It stands to reason that an electorate chooses party A over party B based on the ideology and principles it espouses. Since this principle was being subverted by the culture of defections, known as the politics of aaya ram gaya ram, Parliament in a commendable show of fortitude had passed the anti-defection law. But, this law, like any other law, was often circumvented. Arunachal Pradesh is a prime example of this, where almost the entire group of legislators shifted camp. When more than one contender believed he had the majority support of the honourable legislators and had not been invited to form the government, instead of waiting for a floor test, the matter was contested in courts of law, and judicial interventions actually saw the restoration of governments. This happened in Uttarakhand as well.