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GS Paper: GS2

  • Govt tweaks spending norms for Contingency Fund of India

    The government has tweaked spending norms for Contingency Fund of India, allowing 40% of the total corpus to be placed at disposal of the Expenditure Secretary.

    What are the proposed changes?

    • Budget 2021-22 proposed to enhance the Contingency Fund of India from ₹500 crore to ₹30,000 crore through Finance Bill.
    • An amount equivalent to 40 per cent of the Fund corpus shall be placed at the disposal of the Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure.
    • This would serve the purpose of meeting unforeseen expenditure.

    What is Contingency Fund of India?

    • Contingency is a negative event which may occur in future, like recession or pandemic.
    • The Constitution has a provision for a contingency fund. Its corpus is always kept intact.
    • Article 267 of the Constitution mandates formation of a corpus under Contingency Fund of India to deal with any emergency situation.
    • It is placed at the disposal of the President of India.
    • Government cannot withdraw funds from it without authorization of the Parliament.
    • And the corpus has to be replenished with the same amount later.

    Management of the fund

    • The fund is held by the Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the President of India and it can be operated by executive action.
    • The fund can be increased through a Finance Bill when Parliament is in the session.
    • Or through Ordinance if the House is not in session and situation warrants.
    • Withdrawal from the fund takes place with the approval of the Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs, in terms of the Contingency Fund of India Act, 1950.
    • An amount equivalent to 40% of the corpus has now been placed at the disposal of the Expenditure Secretary.
    • All further Contingency Fund releases beyond this limit will require the approval of the Expenditure Secretary in addition to the Economic Affairs Secretary’s approval.

    Back2Basics:

    Consolidated Funds of India

    • The provision for this fund is given in Article 266(1) of the Constitution of India.
    • The government meets all its expenditure from this CFI.
    • It receives money from:
    1. Direct and indirect taxes Loans taken by the Indian government
    2. Returning of loans/interests of loans to the government by anyone/agency that has taken it
    • The government needs parliamentary approval to withdraw money from this fund.
    • Each state has its own Consolidated Fund of the state with similar provisions.
    • The Comptroller and Auditor General of India audits these funds and reports to the relevant legislatures on their management.

    Public Account of India

    • All other public money (other than those covered under the Consolidated Fund of India) received by or on behalf of the Indian Government are credited to this account/fund.
    • It is constituted under Article 266(2) of the Constitution.
    • This is made up of:
      1. Bank savings account of the various ministries/departments
      2. National small savings fund, defense fund
      3. National Investment Fund (money earned from disinvestment)
      4. National Calamity & Contingency Fund (NCCF) (for Disaster Management)
      5. Provident fund, Postal insurance, etc.
      6. Similar funds
    • The government does not need permission to take advances from this account.
    • Each state can have its own similar accounts.
    • CAG makes audit of all the expenditure from the Public Account of India.

     

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  • What are Padma Awards?

    The central government has announced the names of Padma awardees for this year.

    What are Padma awards?

    • The Padma awards are the highest civilian honor of India after the Bharat Ratna.
    • They are announced every year on the eve of Republic Day.
    • The awards are given in three categories:
    1. Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service)
    2. Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and
    3. Padma Shri (distinguished service)
    • The award seeks to recognize achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.

    Note: During the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997, Padma awards were not announced.

    Who are the awardees?

    • The awards are given in certain select categories which include Art, Social Work, Public Affairs, Science & Engineering, Trade & Industry, Medicine, Literature & Education, Civil Service and Sports.
    • Awards are also given for propagation of Indian culture, protection of human rights, wild life protection among others.

    Its constitution

    • The PADMA Awards were instituted in 1954 along with Bharat Ratna.
    • At that time only Padma Vibhushan existed with three sub-categories – Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg.
    • These were subsequently renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri vide Presidential Notification issued on January 8, 1955.

    Particulars of the awards

    • The awardees do not get any cash reward but a certificate signed by the President apart from a medallion which they can wear at public and government functions.
    • The awards are, however, not a conferment of title and the awardees are expected to not use them as prefix or suffix to their names.
    • A Padma awardee can be given a higher award only after five years of the conferment of the earlier award.

    Terms of awarding

    • Not more than 120 awards can be given in a year but this does not include posthumous awards or awards given to NRIs and foreigners.
    • The award is normally not conferred posthumously.
    • However, in highly deserving cases, the Government could consider giving an award posthumously.

    Who is eligible for Padma awards?

    • All persons without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex are eligible for these awards.
    • However, government servants including those working with PSUs, except doctors and scientists, are not eligible for these awards.
    • The award seeks to recognize works of distinction and is given for distinguished and exceptional achievements or service in all fields of activities and disciplines.
    • According to Padma awards selection criteria, the award is given for “special services” and not just for “long service”.
    • It should not be merely excellence in a particular field, but the criteria has to be ‘excellence plus’.

    Who nominates the awardees?

    • Any citizen of India can nominate a potential recipient.
    • One can even nominate one’s own self. All nominations are to be done online where a form is to be filled along with details of the person or the organisation being nominated.
    • An 800-word essay detailing the work done by the potential awardee is also to be submitted for the nomination to be considered.
    • The government also writes to various state governments, governors, Union territories, central ministries and various departments to send nominations.

    Who selects the awardees?

    • All nominations received for Padma awards are placed before the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year.
    • The Padma Awards Committee is headed by the Cabinet Secretary and includes Home Secretary, Secretary to the President and four to six eminent persons as members.
    • The recommendations of the committee are submitted to the Prime Minister and the President of India for approval.
    • The antecedents of the selected awardees are verified using the services of central agencies to ensure nothing untoward has been reported or come on record about them.
    • A final list is then prepared and announced.

    Is the recipient’s consent sought?

    • There is no provision for seeking a written or formal consent of the recipient before the announcement of the award.
    • However, before the announcement, every recipient receives a call from the Ministry of Home Affairs informing him or her about the selection.
    • In case the recipient expresses a desire to be excluded from the award list, the name is removed.

     

    Try this question from CSP 2021

    Q.Consider the following statements in respect of Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards

    1. Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards are titles under the Article 18(1) of the Constitution of India.
    2. Padma wards, which were instituted in the year 1954, were suspended only once.
    3. The number of Bharat Ratna Awards is restricted to a maximum of five in a particular year.

    Which of the above statements are not correct?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

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  • Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), 2021

     

    The 2021 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International places India 85th on a list of 180 countries, one position above last year.

    Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)

    • The CPI is an index which ranks countries “by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.”
    • The CPI generally defines corruption as an “abuse of entrusted power for private gain”.
    • The index is published annually by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International since 1995.
    • The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people.
    • It uses a scale of 0 to 100 to rank CPI, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

    What kind of corruption does the CPI measure?

    The data sources used to compile the CPI specifically cover the following manifestations of public sector corruption:

    • Bribery
    • Diversion of public funds
    • Officials using their public office for private gain without facing consequences
    • Ability of governments to contain corruption in the public sector
    • Excessive red tape in the public sector which may increase opportunities for corruption
    • Nepotistic appointments in the civil service
    • Laws ensuring that public officials must disclose their finances and potential conflicts of interest
    • Legal protection for people who report cases of bribery and corruption
    • State capture by narrow vested interests
    • Access to information on public affairs/government activities

    The CPI does NOT cover:

    • Citizens’ direct perceptions or experience of corruption
    • Tax fraud
    • Illicit financial flows
    • Enablers of corruption (lawyers, accountants, financial advisors etc)
    • Money-laundering
    • Private sector corruption
    • Informal economies and markets

    Highlights of the 2021 Report

    • The top-performing countries were Denmark, Finland and New Zealand — all having a corruption perceptions score of 88 — followed by Norway, Singapore and Sweden, all of them scoring 85.
    • In contrast, the worst-performing countries were South Sudan with a corruption perceptions score of 11, followed by Syria (13), Somalia (13, Venezuela (14) and Afghanistan (16).

    India’s performance

    • In 2021, India ranked 86th with the same CPI score of 40.
    • The report highlighted concerns over the risk to journalists and activists who have been victims of attacks by the police, political militants, criminal gangs and corrupt local officials.
    • Civil society organizations that speak up against the government have been targeted with security, defamation, sedition, hate speech and contempt-of-court charges, and with regulations on foreign funding.

     

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  • The strength of our republic

    Context

    A republic is made robust and kept alive by its people. In its current form, the Indian republic marks 73 years of maintaining a dynamic balance.

    Directly elected representation

    •  It is to the credit of our people that today we have a pyramidal three-layered elected representative system that governs us.
    • This system today has over 3 million elected representatives (a million of them women), over 4,000 elected to the state legislatures and over 500 in the Parliament.
    • This scale of directly elected representation, perhaps, can be seen nowhere else in the world.

    Moral and spiritual basis of the Constitution

    • In Pilgrimage to Freedom, K M Munshi writes, “our Constitution has a moral background — to secure justice for every section of our society; as also a spiritual basis — to preserve and protect all religions in the exercise of their functions”.
    • The challenges continue in securing justice for every section of our society.
    • The Backward Classes, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the poor across all categories clamour for better opportunities and affordable justice.
    • What Munshi calls the spiritual basis of our Constitution in having to preserve and protect all religions is also seen under stress.
    • When the right to practise one’s religion is denied or threatened, the silence of the thinking public or the media weakens that constitutionally embedded protection.

    Challenges posed by social media

    • Through the power of technology and its capacity to broadcast at mass scale, an otherwise useful tool, social media, has become a challenge and sometimes a threat to one or several of the rights enshrined in our Constitution.
    • Curtailing them to protect the rights of citizens is seen as trampling upon the right to free speech.
    • Without any action, the damage caused to social harmony by such rampant false news can result in people losing faith in the Constitution itself.

    Constitution as a living, dynamic process

    • Our Constitution is the most amended of all constitutions in the world.
    • If there are more than 100 amendments made to the Constitution, there are more than 1,500 laws that have been repealed because they have outlived their times.
    • These deadwood laws, by remaining on paper, occasionally became a weapon in the hands of rent-seekers.
    • Their removal, as a part of administrative reform, has kept the role of the executive transparent and accountable.
    • That the Constitution is always evolving is best exemplified by the 101st amendment which rolled out the Goods and Services Tax.
    • his amendment brought in a unified indirect tax regime by subsuming most of the indirect taxes of the Centre and the states.
    • Yet to complete five full years, the GST Council has stood the test of challenging times even in its initial years.
    • It augurs well for cooperative federalism.

    Conclusion

    Our Constitution has served us well in these seven decades. Several republics in the post-imperial era have rejected their earlier constitutions and tested new ones. It is the people who can keep the republic robust and alive.

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  • A festival to salute India’s vibrant democracy

    Context

    This year we are celebrating our 73rd Republic Day. The Constitution has been our guiding force in the journey of the nation as a mature democracy among comity of nations.

    Historical background

    • The Constituent Assembly undertook intensive deliberations over a period of two years, 11 months and 18 days spread over 11 sessions, during which the Constitution of India took shape.
    • Our Constituent Assembly played a dual role after Independence, given the insurmountable task of nation-building.
    • Our Constituent Assembly had performed the functions of the provisional Parliament of India in the interval between the time our Constitution was enforced and the day when the new Parliament was formed following the first General Elections (October 25, 1951-February 21, 1952).
    • The Constituent Assembly of India acted as the first Parliament of independent India.

    Role of the Parliament

    • Representative institutions and democratic traditions have always been an integral part of our rich heritage
    • Our Parliament has been playing a pivotal role in the all-round development of the nation by adopting many parliamentary devices for ensuring free and fair discussions and dialogue.
    • We have to ensure that our institutions and governance ensure inclusivity and the participation of our population in our developmental journey, particularly our women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and all other marginalised sections become equal partners in our growth story.

    Ensuring the best legislative practices

    • Repository of the proceedings: To ensure that best legislative practices are shared, a national portal is being planned to serve as a repository of the proceedings of Parliament and all State/Union Territory legislatures in the country.
    • Research support is being provided to Members to help them participate better and meaningfully in matters brought before Parliament.
    • Review of the laws to make them relevant: It is also time in the journey of our nation to take stock and review laws that were enacted during the pre-Independence era so as to make them more relevant to our current requirements and future challenges.

    Conclusion

    Republic Day is an occasion for people’s representatives and all citizens of this proud nation to reaffirm faith in the ideals enshrined in our Constitution.

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  • Places in the news: Sittwe Port

    Context

    Notwithstanding the unfortunate developments since the Tatmadaw took over, a recalibration exercise for developing a robust relationship with Naypyidaw is the need of the hour.

    Need for proactive neighbourhood policy with Myanmar

    • Security and economic interests: India should implement an unbiased and proactive “Neighbourhood First” strategy that facilitates the Act East policy crucial for India’s long-term security and economic interests.
    • Myanmar — regardless of who governs its polity — is not only the decisive lynchpin for India’s Act East policy but critical for the economic development and security of India’s Northeast.
    • China factor: Such a policy should take into account the measures that China has taken to arm the Tatmadaw.

    How to support Myanmar?

    • Critical requirements: India should find ways to support Naypyidaw for its critical requirements of systems and platforms like UAVs, surveillance systems and communication equipment.
    • Economic engagement: There is a need for dynamic economic engagement with Myanmar, to expedite the completion of the earlier agreement on the operationalisation of the Sittwe port, the establishment of an oil refinery and joint vaccine production facilities at a cost of $6 billion.
    • People-to-people goodwill: India also needs to proactively employ the existing “people-to-people” goodwill and proximate ties between the two armies.
    • Engage with military leadership to stop highhandedness: India has the singular advantage of acceptability from both factions in Myanmar and it is, therefore, imperative that it takes the lead in engaging with the ruling military leadership, to stop the highhandedness.
    • The visit by India’s Foreign Secretary to Myanmar in the last week of December 2021 was significant.
    • It conveyed the message that India, notwithstanding its commitment to democracy, is amenable to conduct business with the country, regardless of who is in the seat of power.

    Conclusion

    It is of the utmost importance for India to positively engage Naypyidaw and stave off attempts to exploit Myanmar by countries inimical to India’s growth. Any ambiguity or delay in India’s constructive engagement with Myanmar would only serve the interests of anti-India forces.

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  • India’s challenge in European geopolitics

    Context

    For India, an important strategic priority today is to rebalance the Indo-Pacific. Delhi, however, recognises that this expansive challenge can’t be met by any one power, including the US. A larger European role in securing Asia therefore becomes critical.

    Importance of Russia in balancing China

    • Peace with Russia in Europe might be necessary for America to focus on Asia has been the key motivation behind President Joe Biden’s decision to intensify engagement with Vladimir Putin in the last few months.
    • On the question of Ukraine’s membership of NATO, the US and its European allies have suggested that membership is certainly not imminent; but they are unwilling to say Ukraine will “never” be admitted.

    Contradiction in Europe

    • 1] Europe remains geopolitically unstable: None of the three European settlements of the 20th century — in 1919 after the First World War, in 1945 after the Second World War, and in 1991 after the Cold War — has endured.
    • 2] The difficulty of integrating Russia into a European order: Russia was part of the great power system in Europe through the 18th and 19th centuries.
    • If the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution put Russia and the West at odds with each other, the collapse of the Soviet Union has not resolved the contradiction.
    • 3] Growing tension between the US and Europe: Since the Second World War, Europe has relied on the US for its security.
    • However, Europe has never stopped resenting the American dominance over its geopolitics.
    • The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has repeatedly objected to the US and Russia deciding the future of Ukraine over European heads.
    • But Russia does not take the EU seriously and is betting on negotiations with the US.
    • 4] Europe still remains a weak security actor:  While the EU has become a powerful economic entity (with its $17 trillion GDP), it remains a weak security actor.
    • Whatever might be the outcome from the gathering conflict over Ukraine, these European contradictions are not going to disappear any time soon.

    Why Europe remains a weak security actor?

    • Dominance of the US and Russia: The ambition to construct a strong geopolitical personality for the EU is hobbled by divisions over the role of Russia and the US in the region.
    • Mutual suspicions: The historically rooted mutual suspicions among European states also plays role.
    • Reluctance to spend on defence: This is compounded by the reluctance to spend more on defence and the inability to develop collective defence arrangements outside of NATO led by the US.

    Suggestions for India

    • The contradictions in Europe demand that Delhi discard its tendency to view the region through the “East versus West” binary.
    • Delhi today could profitably take a leaf out of the book of the Indian national movement.
    • In the late 18th century, as European powers competed for influence in the subcontinent, many Indian princes sought to take advantage of the contradictions between Britain and France.
    • Imperial Germany supported the formation of a nationalist government of India in Kabul in 1915 headed by Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh.
    • Eager to accelerate Indian independence during the Second World War, Netaji turned to Germany and Japan, the world’s newest great power.
    • The sharpening struggle for Indian independence, and more broadly the liberation of Asia between the two World Wars, inevitably involved exploiting the contradictions between different imperial powers.
    •  This was complicated, however, by rapid realignment among the major powers —friends became adversaries and enemies became allies.
    • The Indian and Asian national movements were deeply divided in coping with the shifting great power dynamic.
    • The world enters a similar moment today that could rearrange relations between the US, UK, Europe, Russia, China and Japan.

    Consider the question “What are the contradictions in Europe today? How these contradiction can play role in India’s international relations with the European countries?”

    Conclusion

    Greater engagement with Europe and dealing with its multiple contradictions must necessarily be important elements of India’s international relations today.

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  • Budgeting for the education emergency

    Context

    Faced with an unprecedented education emergency, this is the time to substantially ramp up public spending on education and make it more effective.

    Low allocation for education

    • UNESCO’s 2030 framework for action suggests public education spending levels of between 4% and 6% of GDP and 15%-20% of public expenditure.
    • A recent World Bank study notes that India spent 14.1 % of its budget on education, compared to 18.5% in Vietnam and 20.6% in Indonesia, countries with similar levels of GDP.
    • But since India has a higher share of population under the age of 19 years than these countries, it should actually be allocating a greater share of the budget than these countries.
    • Public spending on education in most States in India was below that of other middle-income countries even before the pandemic.
    • Most major States spent in the range of 2.5% to 3.1% of State income on education, according to the Ministry of Education’s Analysis of Budgeted Expenditure on Education.
    • This compares with the 4.3% of GDP that lower-middle-income countries spent, as a group, between 2010-11 and 2018-19.
    •  In the 2021-22 Budget, the Central government’s allocation for the Education Department was slashed compared to the previous year, even though the size of the overall budget increased.
    • Of the major States and Delhi, eight either reduced or just about maintained their budget allocation for education departments in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21.

    Way forward

    • The vast majority of the 260 million children enrolled in preschool and school, especially in government schools, did not have meaningful structured learning opportunities during the 20 months of school closures.
    • Infusion of resources: The education system now needs not only an infusion of resources for multiple years, but also a strengthened focus on the needs of the poor and disadvantaged children.
    • What it is spent on and how effectively resources are used are important.
    • It is clear what additional resources are required for.
    • The needs include: back-to-school campaigns and re-enrolment drives; expanded nutrition programmes; reorganisation of the curriculum to help children learn language and mathematics in particular, and support their socio-emotional development, especially in early grades; additional learning materials; teacher training and ongoing support; additional education programmes and collection and analysis of data.
    • Focus on teacher training:  How does expenditure on technology compare with the amounts spent on teacher training, which represents just 0.15% of total estimated expenditure on elementary education?
    • Teachers are central to the quality of education, so why does India spend so little on teacher training?

    The opacity of education finance data in India

    • The opacity of education finance data makes it difficult to comprehend this.
    • For instance, the combined Central and State government spending on education was estimated to be 2.8% of GDP in 2018-19, according to the Economic Survey of 2020-21.
    • This figure had remained at the same level since 2014-15.
    • On the other hand, data from the Ministry of Education indicates that public spending on education had reached 4.3% of GDP in the same year, rising from 3.8% of GDP in 2011-12.
    • The difference in the figures is due to the inclusion of expenditure on education by departments other than the Education Department.
    •  Including expenditure on education by, for example, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (on Anganwadis, scholarships, etc.), the Ministry of Science and Technology (for higher education) is of course legitimate.
    • However, the composition of these expenditures is not readily available.

    Conclusion

    The questions for this Budget should be clear. How much additional funds are being allocated for different levels of education by the principal departments in 2021-22? Are the funds being spent on the specific measures required to address the education emergency facing the children?

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  • Suspension of MLAs

    • Some legislators were suspended for one year by the Maharashtra Assembly for alleged disorderly conduct.
    • The unusually long period of suspension has been questioned by the Supreme Court, which is hearing a challenge to the Assembly’s action.

    A case in apex court

    • The court has reserved its judgment after hearing elaborate arguments.
    • The main question before the court is whether suspension for a whole year is valid.

    Suspending MLAs: A fact check

    • Each state has their individual rules for the conduct of assembly. These rules provides for the suspension of MLAs.
    • Under Rule 53 of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Rules, 1960, only the Speaker has the power to suspend MLAs indulging in unruly behavior.
    • Therefore, the motion to suspend cannot be put to vote as this would allow the Government to suspend as many Members of Opposition as it sees fit.

    Constitutional ground behind this suspension

    • The Court referred to Article 190 (4) of the Constitution which says that if for a period of 60 days, a member of a House, without its permission, is absent; the House may declare his or her seat vacant.
    • Suspension of MLAs beyond this period would lead to their disqualification.

    What did the Supreme Court observe?

    • Suspension of the MLAs would amount to punishing the constituencies as a whole.
    • Each constituency has equal amount of right to be represented in the House, observed the court.
    • The apex court observed that any state cannot create a constitutional void, a hiatus situation for any constituency.
    • It said the House cannot suspend a member beyond 59 days.

    What does the State government say?

    • Counsel for the State government has argued that there is no limitation on the power of the legislature to punish for breach of privilege or disorderly conduct in the course of its proceedings.
    • Once the power to punish a member for disorderly conduct is recognized, there can be no judicial review of the manner in which it is exercised.
    • Further, during suspension, a member continues to hold office, but only loses their voice in the legislature.

     

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  • How to fix the anti-defection loophole

    Context

    It is time that we took a fresh look at the Tenth Schedule to our Constitution.

    Shortcomings of the anti-defection law

    • Partisan nature of Speaker: Paragraph 3 of the Tenth Schedule was omitted by the Constitution (91st Amendment) Act, 2003, which came into effect on January 1, 2004.
    • Paragraph 3, as it existed prior to the amendment, protected defectors as long as one-third of the members of a political party formed a separate group. 
    • In the context of small assemblies, one-third of the members could easily be cobbled together.
    • Often, the speaker of the assembly was seen to be collaborating with the political party in power to protect the defectors under the one-third rule.
    • Such partisan conduct of the speakers is at the heart of a non-functional Tenth Schedule.
    • The seeming political bias of the speakers acting as tribunals is apparent from how disqualification petitions are dealt with.
    • We have seen this happen in Manipur, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and other jurisdictions.
    • Allowing two-third members to merge with another party: After the omission of paragraph 3, paragraph 4 allowed for the protection of defecting members provided two-thirds of the members of the legislative party merged with another political party.
    • This provision has invariably been misused.
    • Constitutional flaw in provisions of paragraph 4: Third, there is a constitutional flaw in the manner in which the provisions of paragraph 4 have been enacted.
    • Paragraph 4(1) stipulates that a member of the house will not be disqualified from his membership where his original political party merges with another political party and he claims that he and other members have become members of the other political party or a new political party is being formed by such merger.
    • However, paragraph 4(2) provides that such a merger would be deemed to have taken place only if not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislative party agreed to such a merger.
    • This allows for clandestine corruption where two-thirds of the members of the legislative party are bought over, by means fair or foul, to either topple governments or to strengthen a razor-thin majority of the party in power.
    • This makes the entire provision unworkable and unconstitutional.
    • Prolonging the proceedings: We have witnessed situations where, even though the provisions of paragraph 4 are not ex-facie attracted, the speaker of the assembly makes sure that the proceedings are interminably prolonged so that the term of the assembly comes to an end before the proceedings under the Tenth Schedule against those ex-facie defectors have been concluded.

    Need for urgent attention to Article 164(1B)

    • This allows for the toppling of governments by inducements of various kinds.
    • The motivation is that a fresh election allows the disqualified member to be re-elected.
    • He then becomes a member of the assembly once again, as its term is not over and can also be appointed a minister.
    • Under Article 164(1B), such a defection has no real consequences.

    Way forward

    • 1] Ensure impartiality of Speaker: Speakers, when elected must resign from the party to which they belong.
    • At the end of their term, there should be a cooling-off period before they can become members of any political party.
    • 2] Omit Paragraph 4 through Amendment: Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule should be omitted by moving a constitutional amendment.
    • 3] Make disqualification for 5 years: All those disqualified under paragraph 2 of the Tenth Schedule should neither be entitled to contest elections nor hold public office for five years from the date of their disqualification.
    • Article 164(1B) should be omitted by moving a constitutional amendment.
    • Set time limit to decide petition for disqualification: All petitions for disqualification of members under paragraph 2 of the Tenth Schedule should be decided, by adopting a summary procedure, within a period of three months.

    Consider the question “Has anti-defection law succeeded in curbing the defections and ensuring the stability of the elected governments? Give reasons in support of your argument.”

    Conclusion

    If our polity wants to get rid of open corruption, it needs to take urgent steps to plug existing loopholes that have made the Tenth Schedule unworkable.

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    Back2Basics: Article 164(1B)

    • A member of the Legislative Assembly of a State or either House of the Legislature of a State having Legislative Council belonging to any political party who is disqualified for being a member of that House under paragraph 2 of the Tenth Schedule shall also be disqualified to be appointed as a Minister under clause (1) for duration of the period commencing from the date of his disqualification till the date on which the term of his office as such member would expire or where he contests any election to the Legislative Assembly of a State or either House of the Legislature of a State having Legislative Council, as the case may be, before the expiry of such period, till the date on which he is declared elected, whichever is earlier.