Politics is the first refuge of scoundrels. When corrupt and criminal figures get caught, they switch parties. In India, that is the tradition. Sonia Gandhi used political defections as a tool to successfully wrest control of the parliament during 1993, to save her party’s candidate, Narasimha Rao, from the government, and to twice topple Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government at the center.
Politicians don’t belong to a party. They only belong to themselves as they seek power, wealth, and legal immunity. In the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled Bharat, that is India, the ruling government runs an effective “washing machine.” Opposition politicians facing corruption and other criminal cases, hounded by investigative agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), simply jump ship to join the BJP. In all cases, ongoing investigations are watered down and subsequently dropped or closed. The newcomers into the holy party become new mascots on their election hoardings. They are garlanded in full public glare, displaying the “V” sign. All of them gleaming with pride, as if after a successful coup.
Some people resort to shameful ways because, for them, that appears to be the only way to survive in politics. Ordinary people who expect morality from politicians should be ashamed in the first place. Morality and politics do not go together in today’s India, and surely elsewhere too.
Raghav Chadha and six other Members of Parliament (Upper House) from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) switched sides and joined the BJP. The seven honourable MPs, who till the other day criticised and condemned the BJP, today find themselves in the virtuous and comfortable lap because they have joined the ship to become respectable members of the ruling party. Defection is not a political stigma but a strategic repositioning within an uneven landscape of power. The defectors, or new entrants, make that landscape even further uneven as they take plum posts while the old guard sulks. While accepting and welcoming opposition politicians with open arms, political managers must ensure they keep their existing flock together; any resentment, if any, is capped and silenced.
The BJP’s gains since 2014 have been powered as much by political defections as electoral victories. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a Delhi-based non-governmental organization (NGO), found that the BJP has expanded not just through elections but also by systematically absorbing politicians from rival parties. From Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka, defections have toppled governments and normalized party-switching as an instrument of political power.
According to ADR, 35% of the MPs/MLAs who switched parties during the 2014-2021 period joined the BJP. As many as 173 out of 500 re-contesting MPs/MLAs who switched parties joined the BJP. The ADR analysed the sworn affidavits of 1133 candidates and 500 MPs/MLAs, who switched parties and re-contested elections for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections since 2014.
Political leaders who changed allegiance and are being given tickets to contest the elections are nothing new, but the scale of this on the BJP’s list for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls is unusual. Almost a quarter, 106 of the 435, are those who switched to the washing machine at some point in the last 10 years; 90 joined the BJP in the last five years.
The ancient Indian scholar and strategist Chanakya has outlined the philosophy of Saam (persuasion), Daam (inducement/incentives), Dand (punishment), and Bhed (deception, division) to acquire and retain power. The key is to balance idealism with pragmatic realism. Depending on the situation or when other methods fail, the last resort is to create division or exploit an opponent’s weakness. It includes deception and diplomatic isolation.
Chinese military strategist and philosopher Sun Tzu prioritized expediency and deception over moral idealism, arguing that political morality is distinct from personal ethics. In modern times, his teachings are interpreted to mean that safeguarding the common good may require methods that conventional individual morality condemns.
Most significantly, the cumulative effect of old teachings applied in new paradigms is that political defections are no longer strange events. These are normal in our society, which cannot distinguish between right and wrong.
Sun Tzu advocated “winning without fighting.” BJP victory sutra is “buy the winner.”
