The role of individual MPs has diminished over the years and as a result, healthy constructive debates on…

Question

The role of individual MPs has diminished over the years and as a result, healthy constructive debates on policy issues are not usually witnessed. How far can this be attributed to the anti-defection law, which was legislated, but with a different intention?

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

The anti-defection law partly explains the decline of individual MPs: binding members to the whip on every motion ended conscience voting, while fewer sittings and sidelined committees eroded debate independently. PRS data show bill referrals to committees falling from 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha to 25% in the 16th.

**Introduction**

The Tenth Schedule (52nd Amendment, 1985) was meant to end "Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram" floor-crossing, but it also bound every MP to the whip on every vote, contributing to the decline of the independent legislator.

**How the Anti-defection Law Muted Individual MPs**

SKETCH: fishbone | Why MP-led Debate Weakened
effect: Muted individual MPs
- Whip on every vote
- Party high command
- Fewer sittings
- Bypassed committees
- Disruptions

1. **Whip on every motion**: Paragraph 2(1)(b), upheld in Kihoto Hollohan (1992), disqualifies any member who defies the whip, so conscience voting ended and speeches rarely change outcomes.
2. **Comparative evidence**: British MPs rebelled against three-line whips in the 2019 Brexit votes without losing their seats, showing the Indian law, not discipline alone, removes dissent.
3. **Intention defeated**: Defection survived through mass resignations in Karnataka (2019) and Madhya Pradesh (2020), so the cost fell on dissent, not opportunism.

**Other Causes of Declining Debate**

1. **Fewer sittings**: The Lok Sabha met over 120 days a year in the 1950s but about 70 by the 2000s, shrinking time for members' speeches.
2. **Bypassed committees**: PRS data show bill referrals falling from 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha to 25% in the 16th.
3. **Disruption and guillotine**: Adjournments and guillotined demands for grants let much of the Budget pass undebated.
4. **Weak research support**: Without personal research staff, few MPs can contest technical bills.

**Conclusion**

The law explains the decline only partly; shrinking sittings, sidelined committees and disruption hollowed out debate on their own. Limiting the whip to votes on the government's survival, as the Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990) proposed, with revived committee scrutiny, would restore a deliberative Parliament.

The role of individual MPs has diminished over the years and as a result, healthy constructive debates on policy issues are not usually witnessed. How far can this be attributed to the anti-defection law, which was legislated, but with a different intention?

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