Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar as expectedly on Monday dismissed the disqualification petition filed by Dominic Noronha seeking the disqualification of eight Congress rebel MLAs who had switched over from their party to the ruling BJP way back in September 2022. While dismissing the petition, the Speaker has stated that the Supreme Court clearly holds that if two-thirds of the members of the legislative Assembly disagree with their political party, then such disagreement is protected and shall not incur disqualification. Which means that the highest Court itself fully accepts such illegalities and allows defections of 2/3rd MLAs from one political party to another even after knowing that they have backstabbed their voters after elections. The Speaker though has yet to rule on the disqualification petitions filed by Congress leaders Amit Patkar and Girish Chodankar, that have challenged the legality of the defections under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. I think that as long as the most controversial anti-defection law is not amended in Parliament, opportunist politicians from all political parties will keep jumping like frogs from one party to another to enjoy their own 'ache-din'.
