Having already lured seven Opposition MLAs to its camp and threatening to induce at least a dozen more legislators from the Congress and the JD(S) to switch over to the ruling party, the BJP in Karnataka is demonstrating in full measure that it is a “party with a difference.” Neither the defectors nor the BJP even remotely used the fig leaf of the “policies and programmes” which led to the change of  so many hearts so soon after the elections and clearly it is only the politics of commerce that is at work. While the BJP is eager to put together a comfortable majority in the Assembly, the legislators have uniformly mouthed their desire to see the “development of their constituencies” as the main reason for leaving their mother parties to join the BJP.

These developments – the first of its kind in Karnataka – raise several disturbing questions. Even conceding that the legislators resigned their seats before joining the BJP, does it not amount to an insult to the voters who elected them in the first place? Can a ruling party use the loaves of office at its disposal and make a mockery of the Anti-Defection Act? Can democracy survive if legislators begin to think that they can serve their constituencies only if they are in the ruling party? Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s assertion that the legislators are queueing up on their own holds no water as three of the defectors have already been made ministers and there are reports that others will also be suitably accommodated either in the cabinet or as chairmen of boards and corporations. There was a general feeling of disgust among the people and sympathy for the BJP when it accused the UPA government at the Centre of disbursing cash-for-votes to win the confidence motion in parliament recently, but what the party is doing in Karnataka is equally vulgar and blatant misuse of money power.

There is already resentment within the BJP that the “outsiders” are being given undue importance and coveted positions at the cost of party loyalists and it may not take long for the anger to burst out against the leadership. Not only are these defections unethical, but the fact that by-elections will have to be held to fill those seats, will mean unnecessary expenditure and disruption of public life. The BJP will do well to ponder the consequences of its “Operation Kamala” and desist from further misadventures in the interest of protecting the hallowed democratic traditions.