If the Coronavirus fright robbed Tuesday’s nationwide Holi festivity of its usual excitement to some extent, in contrast, the drama that was staged on the political theatre of Madhya Pradesh that very day and still running high wasn’t having any such deficiency. Colours there, for one side have become prominent and since it’s the unwritten and cruel rule of the contemporary Indian political culture, it has come at the cost of the other side’s fading. If it’s the saffron which went brighter, the one faded was green. Grabbing opportunity of the inner wrangles of the Congress and more specifically, cashing in on Jyotiraditya Scindia’s “dissatisfaction”, BJP has once more raided the former’s fort with its usual ‘professional competence’. It’s simple arithmetic now- with 20+(the number keeps changing) Congress MLAs loyal to the scion of the royal Scindia family tendering their resignations, sans any last-minute major twist to the drama, the 15-month Kamal Nath government which took oath in December 2018 ending a 15-year BJP rule, is going to fall.
Putting all speculations to rest, Scindia on Wednesday joined the BJP mid-afternoon and expectedly within hours got his ‘reward’ by getting the saffron nomination for the ensuing RS contest. Meanwhile, an inseparable strategy in the ‘adventures’ of these kind where toppling an elected government is the sole objective of those practising it, now better known as ‘resort culture’ has again returned, reminding all of the very recent Karnataka chapter. The Madhya Pradesh episode, which political observers are terming as a latest case of horse-trading and political subterfuge, has, by the way exposed how much ‘vulnerable’ the grand old party has become in recent years due to various causes, at the forefront being a leadership vacuum and flagrant internal differences. The party as a whole had remained indifferent to all these and as such paying the price and records tell, more than half-a-dozen former Union Ministers, three former CMs and at least four state presidents had deserted since the 2014 LS disaster.
But the larger picture which goes much beyond a simple calculation of one party’s loss resulting in the other’s gain must not lose attention. The moment has arrived to ask- after Goa, Bihar, Karnataka……others and now Madhya Pradesh, is it not that elections have seemingly become a joke and is it not the appropriate time to have a rethink over the anti-defection law? Time and again, people’s verdicts have been tampered with and a system which gives birth and sustenance of turncoats has evolved and is regrettably flourishing. After these resignation-fuelled switchovers, fresh elections become compulsory and they do take place at the cost of tax-payers’ money.
Turncoats have had the last laugh and democracy weeps. Is there anyone left to do a soul searching?  

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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