Watch Nidhi Razdan: Defections and corruption allegations: Maharashtra's political turmoil unveiled

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00:00Well, isn't it ironic that just days after PM Modi singled out the NCP for its alleged

00:09corruption to the amount of 70,000 crores, a large chunk of that very party, led by the

00:16very man who is the prime accused in many of these scams, Ajit Pawar, decided to switch

00:21their support to the BJP in the state.

00:24And of course, they were welcomed with open arms.

00:26That pretty much sums up the state of Indian politics today.

00:29It is opportunism and cynicism at its best.

00:32And it's not the first time that this has happened.

00:35But what it does reflect is just how poorly the anti-defection law in this country has

00:41actually worked.

00:42The law was brought in in the mid 80s, essentially to prevent this IRM-Gayaram politics that

00:48India was consistently seeing.

00:50But at the end of the day, it hasn't actually prevented governments from falling.

00:54In fact, wholesale defections are still taking place.

00:58The decision to disqualify or not to disqualify members has to be taken by the Speaker of

01:02the House.

01:03And speakers, today more than ever, are more politically partisan than we have ever seen

01:08them.

01:09Very often, they take years to decide on disqualification pleas because they have no time limit that

01:14is set for them to do so.

01:16And then courts have intervened, making the process very cumbersome, lengthy, and very,

01:21very complicated.

01:22The other purpose of the anti-defection law actually has been to curb the independent

01:28minds of our legislators, MPs and MLAs, because they can't vote on a bill or a legislation

01:34based on their own common sense or their own outlook towards a particular issue.

01:39They have to necessarily toe the party line or they could be disqualified.

01:43So where does that leave our democracy?

01:45It's time to scrap this law and it's time to find a better way to deal with instability

01:51in our governments and to deal with defections.

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