Cong’s Tewari introduces Bill in LS to free MPs from ‘whip tyranny’

New Delhi: Congress MP Manish Tewari has introduced a Bill in Lok Sabha that seeks to allow Parliamentarians to take an independent line in voting on Bills and motions other than those affecting the government’s stability in a bid to free them from “whip-driven tyranny” and promote “good law-making”.

Tewari, who introduced the private member’s Bill on Friday last to amend the Anti-Defection Law, said his

proposed legislation seeks to flag who has primacy in a democracy - the elector who stands in the sun for hours to elect his or her representative or the political party whose whip the representative becomes the helot of.

The Bill, introduced by Tewari for the third time in Lok Sabha after 2010 and 2021, seeks to give

Parliamentarians the freedom to toe an independent line in voting on Bills and motions other than a confidence motion, no-confidence motion, adjournment motion, money Bills and financial matters that could affect the stability of a government.

“This Bill seeks to return conscience, constituency and common sense to the echelons of the legislature so that an elected representative actually functions as the representative of the people who elected him and not as an instrument of a whip issued by his party, transforming lawmakers into mere lobotomised numbers and dogmatic ciphers responding to a division bell,” Tewari told news agency.

The statement of objects and reasons of the Bill state that it proposes to amend the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution with a view to provide for the following - “a member shall incur loss of his membership only when he votes or abstains from voting in the House with regard to a confidence motion, no-confidence motion, adjournment motion, money Bill or financial matters, contrary to any direction issued in this behalf by the party to which he belongs to, and in no other case.”

“The Chairman or the Speaker of a House shall make an announcement in the House regarding any direction issued by a political party in respect of the aforesaid motions, Bill or financial matters, as soon as possible, after such direction has been communicated to him by that political party,” the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill said.