While the moral debate over Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s resignation as MP over holding an ‘office of profit’ continues with even an RSS ideologue now voicing his praise for Mrs Gandhi the issue on the other hand, has now snowballed into a major calamity claiming more victims across the country. More MPs and MLAs will now find themselves in a moral dilemma on whether to quit or hold on to offices of profit, something that is barred under India’s electoral laws. And it is also a rare occasion for politicians belonging to various political parties to come together. Their common interest would be to bring a law at the earliest so that together they would be able to survive this latest threat to their comfort zones and continue profiting from the offices they hold.
If at all, politicians should not be allowed to circumvent the letter and spirit of the constitution. The judiciary over the next few days and weeks ahead will have to closely monitor the initiatives of political parties out to make changes in the present law to suit their interest. And in this case most unfortunately almost all politicians and the parties they represent have a vested interest to protect their office and the profit accrued from it. Therefore, it is incumbent on the judiciary to intervene if at all any new act is aimed at destroying the basic structure of the constitution. For parliament and the politicians who occupy its seat of power, at best they should define (as against re-define) more clearly those offices that needs to be exempted by law without in any way being motivated to protect the membership of MPs/MLAs who are holding offices of profit.
The Election Commission on its part will have to carefully examine petitions seeking disqualification of members and maintain consistency as per the meaning of the law. As in the case of Jaya Bachchan, whose membership of the Rajya Sabha has been recommended for disqualification by the Election Commission, the Supreme Court may likewise have to step in at some point of time and give its legal opinion on the term “office of profit” and also enlighten under what situation or circumstance a person is deemed to be holding an office of profit with the Centre or a State Government.
However, for the present, the benefit of doubt will have to go to the parliamentarians themselves and Parliament as the highest law making body of the country will have to be given the first opportunity to address the present constitutional dilemma. How honestly they are able to do their work remains to be seen. At the end of the day, the supremacy of the constitution will have to be upheld and for this the three organs of government, the executive, legislature and judiciary have as much responsibility to keep a check on each other and not to go beyond their limits of power.
