Ready, steady, and split — you’ve just 48 hours left,’’ was the message sent out by Lok Sabha to Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, K. Karunakaran and sundry other dissidents in different political parties when the Lower House unanimously passed the 97th Constitution (Amendment) Bill today. The bill will be discussed and passed in Rajya Sabha on December 18 and after that it will be near impossible for dissident leaders to lure MLAs to their side. Once the bill becomes law, no dissident will be allowed to split from the parent party. Nor will defectors be made ministers or given any remunerative political post once they have deserted the party on whose symbol they were elected.What it means is that Bhattal and her ilk have to get their act together in a hurry. Bhattal, who has been threatening to split the party if Amarinder is not removed from the Punjab CM’s post, will have to do so before the bill becomes law. The existing anti-defection law, formally known as the Constitution (52nd Amendment) Act, 1985, which was passed soon after Rajiv Gandhi assumed power, allowed ‘‘bulk defections’’ in the nature of split (one-third of parent party) and merger (two-thirds of original political party).The Standing Committee on Home Affairs, that formulated the basis of the amendment, noted: ‘‘provision of split has been misused to engineer divisions in the party, as a result of which the evil of defection has not been checked.’’As per the present bill, any member who quits his party stands disqualified and has to seek a fresh mandate. But if he ceases to be a member, why have a separate clause debarring him from holding any public office? Because under the present rules, even after a defector is disqualified from membership, he can be made a minister for six months. The 97th amendment bill will become law after presidential assent. Therefore, Bhattal may have over 48 hours to wean away ‘‘dissidents’’. But since the bill was passed unanimously, any effort at defection after it is passed by the Rajya Sabha is likely to be politically explosive.
