Play of moneybags

The moneybags have been emboldened after the RP Act of 1951 was amended to do away with the domiciliary requirement.

Jharkhand high court has directed that the role of money in the latest Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand be investigated by the CBI.

The Election Commission displayed muscle by immediately countermanding the election after Rs 2.15 crore was seized from the vehicle of the cousin of a candidate in Ranchi. The Congress candidate, who was likely to win, moved the high court challenging the EC’s order but the court dismissed his petition and ordered for a CBI inquiry. It is not for the first time that the Rajya Sabha election has been countermanded as was reported in the media and even many constitutional experts commented; earlier in 1992, Rajya Sabha election was countermanded in Bihar when then chief minister Lalu Prasad went to the polling booth though he was not an MLA, but an MLC. So, the question was raised why did he go there when he was neither a voter nor a candidate.

Jharkhand has become a corridor for the moneybags to go to Rajya Sabha. Parimal Nathwani came to Jharkhand for the first time and straightaway went to Rajya Sabha. He is not alone; R K Anand, K D Singh and Nishikant Dubey are also in the haloed tradition of Nathwani. Anshuman Mishra, an NRI based in London, also unsuccessfully tried to use the Jharkhand route to reach the Upper House with the support of the BJP but was forced to withdraw following revolt in the party itself. The scuttle-butt is that he bribed the top leadership of the party and also MLAs. 

In Jharkhand, it is not only the Rajya Sabha seats which are auctioned, but even the Lok Sabha seats have been sold out from the beginning. Thus, hotelier Mohan Singh Oberoi entered Lok Sabha as he presented a helicopter to Maharaja Kamakhya Narayan Singh of Ramgarh who reciprocated with a ticket of his party. It led to campaigning by helicopter for the first time in the country. MLAs have put up themselves for sale as they saw their leaders selling the Rajya Sabha seats after hard bargaining. There are also reports that MLAs go to different states in search of moneybags and offer them to come to their state for contesting the election.

The entry of money power into Rajya Sabha polls has raised questions about its raison d’être. In France, it was said that if the upper chamber disagrees with the lower chamber, it is mischief, and if it agrees, it is redundant. However, In India, Rajya Sabha is the Council of States as it has representation of federating units to the virtue of bicameralism based on the role as a chamber of revision.

Federal content

In India, the scheme of bicameralism was first incorporated in the Constitution of India Bill, 1895. The Government of India Act 1919 introduced it first but it was devoid of any federal content. The Motilal Nehru committee report (1928) recommended a federal second chamber and preferred to call it ‘Senate’ instead of ‘Council of States’, but not a la the US model. It was sought to be elected by the provincial legislatures with some degree of weighted representation for smaller provinces to minimise disproportionality as far as possible.

The Government of India Act 1935 also proposed a federal second chamber following in the footsteps of Nehru committee report did not support the idea of equal representation for all units. The debates of the Constituent Assembly reveal that the founding fathers of the Constitution gave more importance to the federal representation than its revising role.

However, the decline in the standard of debates is too precipitate to be repeated.

Moneybags entering the Upper House have different agendas. One owner of a big pharmaceutical company was nominated to Rajya Sabha by the Narsimha Rao government. After that, he was sent from Bihar by Lalu Prasad as an RJD candidate.

Subsequently, he was elected to Rajya Sabha on the JD(U) ticket and has again been elected as a candidate of the same party. Thus, some party or the other is more than willing to oblige him. But he is never to be seen after the election, does not meet anybody or even MLAs and even his MPLAD funds are not spent.

 The moneybags have been emboldened after section 3 of the Representation of People Act 1951 was amended to do away with the domiciliary requirement for contesting the Rajya Sabha election from any state. All parties, barring the Left, supported it as most of the parties are controlled by handlers who sit in Rajya Sabha and are cut off from the people. However, the irony is that the CPM, taking advantage of the amendment, sent Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat to the Upper House from West Bengal. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court too upheld the amendment though it is a body blow to the principle of federalism which is a basic structure of the Constitution.

It is heartening that the high court has ordered a CBI inquiry and it should be hoped that it will uncover the pernicious role that money played in the election. The EC is required to play a pro-active role as it did this time by seizing money and any candidate trying to bribe voters should be disqualified from contesting elections for a long period, if not lifelong. Criminal prosecution should also be launched against the accused.