Reclaiming democracy via voters’ whip

Context: Right from the inception of parliamentary democracy in our country, every party has appointed a whip tasked with disciplining the elected representatives, which has failed to perform its duty. Analysing a case on voters replacing the functioning of a whip.

Working of the current whip system:

• Every party has appointed a whip tasked with disciplining the elected representatives. 
• This role has a legal sanction after the insertion of anti-defection provisions in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. 
• The basic idea is that the voters speak to the MPs and MLAs through the party; hence, they should not be allowed to violate its commands.

Need for a voter’s whip:

• Democracy capture: At this stage in history, when we are experiencing “democracy capture” — a capture of democracy through democratic means — voter’s whip ensures accountability.
• The Pegasus disclosures have opened our eyes, if that was needed, to the mockery of constitutionally guaranteed liberties. In this context

The idea of voter’s whip: Under this, voters bypass the parties and instruct their representatives on how to conduct themselves in Parliament. For e.g. 

• Smayukta Kisan Morcha has issued a whip to all the MPs for this Monsoon session that directs them to be present in Parliament for all days, to support the demands of farmers’ movement on the floor of the House, not stage a walk-out and “not allow any other business to be transacted in the House till the Union Government accedes to the farmers’ demands”.
• Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur witnessed a public hearing on the condition of migrant workers. In this experiment, the jury comprised 17 migrant workers themselves.
• Described as instances of monitory democracy: John Keane has described these as instances of “monitory democracy” — innovations that add instruments of monitoring the health of democracy and thus deepen its quality.

Conclusion: We must recognise that in post-colonial democracies, such innovations do not merely supplement the existing and functional democratic institutions. They also fill a deeper gap.