Congress MP Manish Tewari pushes bill to end 'whip-driven tyranny' in Parliament

Senior Congress MP Manish Tewari has introduced a private member’s bill in the Lok Sabha that seeks to give MPs the power to vote across party lines in Parliament, freeing them from “whip-driven tyranny” and promote “good law-making”.

He argued that party whips reduce lawmakers to “lobotomised numbers” and “dogmatic ciphers”.

End 'whip-driven tyranny'

Currently, elected representatives are legally required to vote as instructed by their party through a formal directive known as a “whip.” Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari has introduced the bill to amend the anti-defection law, aiming to end this compulsion.

It will allow parliamentarians to take an independent line in voting on bills and motions other than those affecting the government's stability.

Tewari described his proposal as an effort to liberate lawmakers from what he called “whip-driven tyranny” and to encourage genuine, independent lawmaking. The bill carves out exceptions for crucial matters such as trust votes, adjournment motions, money bills, and other issues directly tied to the government’s stability.

Who holds primacy?

Framing the debate in stark terms, he asked: Who truly holds primacy in a democracy, the voter who waits for hours under the sun to cast a ballot, or the political party whose whip reduces the representative to a mere helot (serf or slave)?

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Private member’s bills rarely succeed, and this marks Tewari’s third attempt after 2010 and 2021. Yet, his independent stance comes at a time when his party, the principal Opposition in Parliament, is grappling with electoral setbacks and internal discord.

“This bill is an effort to restore conscience, constituency, and common sense to the highest levels of the legislature,” Tewari told PTI.

Genuine lawmaking

The senior leader, who earlier served as a minister in Manmohan Singh’s UPA government, argued that laws are often passed with little genuine debate. “Parliamentarians no longer see themselves as active participants in lawmaking,” he said.

“Instead, a draft prepared by a joint secretary in some ministry is brought to Parliament. A minister then reads out a scripted statement explaining it, and what follows is a then it is put to a pro forma discussion," he pointed out.

He observed then that under the grip of “whip-driven tyranny”, government members almost always vote in favour, while the Opposition votes against. Genuine lawmaking is possible only when MPs devote time to studying global best practices, examining legal precedents, and actively contributing to parliamentary debate, he said.

Rampant defections

“Between 1950 and 1985, whips carried no coercive force,” noted the MP, who is also a lawyer. He explained that the anti-defection law was toughened after the rise of rampant defections in 1967, especially, in the case of the infamous “Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram” episode, when a Haryana legislator switched parties eight times in a single day.

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Eighteen years later, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi introduced the anti-defection law as the 10th Schedule to the Constitution. “Even after three decades, the law, however well-intentioned, has failed to curb the menace of defection,” he said.

“If defections were a retail activity in the 1960s, they became a wholesale activity by the 1990s after the introduction of the anti-defection law and subsequently by the year 2000s, especially after 2014, it has become a mega mall activity where entire parties are bought and sold wholesale, lock, stock and barrel," Tewari said.

Rebel with a cause

Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari, who was part of the 'G23' faction of rebel Congress leaders, has often gone against his party’s line on key issues. Most recently, like another Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, he joined the Narendra Modi government’s global outreach following Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.