Congress MP Manish Tewari has introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha, seeking to free Parliament members from the ‘hassle of the whip’ and allow them to vote freely on bills and resolutions to ‘make good laws’. Tiwari, who introduced a private bill to amend the ‘Anti-Defection Law’ on Friday, said that the purpose of this bill is to find out who should have priority in a democracy – the voter who stands in the sun for hours to choose his representative, or the politics whose representative is forced to follow its whip.
Manish Tiwari had earlier introduced this bill in 2010 and 2021 also. Its objective is to give the Members of Parliament the freedom to vote freely on bills and resolutions other than no-confidence and confidence motions, such as motions related to the stability of the government, adjournment motions, finance bills and financial matters. Tiwari said, ‘This bill has been introduced with the aim that MPs should be given the freedom to take decisions based on their discretion, the people of their constituency and common sense. An elected representative should work according to the people of the constituency rather than following the whip of his party. Because of the party whip, the representative has no importance. Therefore, he should get the right to think and work completely independently.
The Bill’s explanation of objects and reasons states that it seeks to amend the 10th Schedule of the Constitution to ensure that an MP can lose his membership only if he votes contrary to party guidelines or abstains from voting on a confidence motion, no-confidence motion, adjournment motion, finance bill or issues related to financial matters. It is further said, ‘If the political party of any MP sends any instructions to the Chairman or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha on the said proposals, bills or financial matters, then he should inform the same in the House as soon as possible.’
The law states, ‘While sharing such information, the Chairman or Speaker of the House should also specifically inform that if any MP disobeys the direction of the political party, his membership will automatically be terminated and the member will have the right to appeal to the Speaker or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha after his membership is terminated. The bill states that this appeal should be made within 15 days from the date of announcement of termination of membership and the Chairman or Speaker of the Lok Sabha should decide on the appeal within 60 days.
Tiwari said that the purpose of the bill is to achieve a dual goal. He said that one goal is that the stability of the government should not be affected and the second is that MPs and MLAs should get the opportunity to exercise legislative freedom. He said, ‘The joint secretary of a ministry prepares the law. It is presented in Parliament, a minister reads a prepared statement to explain it. Then it is presented for a formal discussion and then due to the pressure imposed through the whip, the members of the ruling party usually vote in favor of it and the opposition members vote against it.
When asked whether the aim of the bill was to eliminate the hassles of the whip and promote good law making, Tiwari said, ‘Absolutely.’ Tiwari also appealed to set up a judicial tribunal consisting of a bench of the Supreme Court to hear 10th Schedule cases. He said that the appeal in any case would go to a bench of five judges and after that there would be a process of statutory review in open court.