By Antriksh Kar Singh
Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky popularised the concept of ‘Manufacturing Consent’ in their 1988 book ‘Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.’ The authors analysed how media acts as a force serving elites rather than the public by reinforcing existing power dynamics through prioritising certain narratives over others to shape public opinion and manipulate consent among those governed.
This phenomenon of ‘manufacturing consent’ became increasingly evident and a matter of concern in democracies across the globe since the advent of Web 2.0 especially social media platforms, which have become a significant mechanism for electoral campaigns. Several mechanisms — including algorithmic manipulation, targeted hashtags, and tailored campaign messages, which have been utilised for micro-targeting of the electorate using social media campaigns for electoral manipulation. Simultaneously, it led to several concerns regarding the sanctity of information consumed through these platforms, raising questions about the essence of ‘informed choice’, which is a fundamental factor for a thriving and functional democracy.
However, the world’s largest democracy- India is witnessing something unique. The political actors- political parties and leaders are in a way killing this essence of informed choice by manufacturing mandates and opposition using loopholes in the legal system. Ever since the defeat of the proposed delimitation bill in parliament an unusual ‘migration’ of Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) is happening” from opposition political parties in the Indian parliament and the state assembly. These recent defections happened taking advantage of loopholes in Anti-defection law.
The opposition political leaders defected either to merge with the ruling party or with another alliance supporting the ruling coalition or formed a separate faction to prevent the disqualification using Anti-defection law. Seven of 10 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs of Rajya Sabha- upper house of Indian Parliament, defected to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last week of April i.e., within a week of defeat of The Delimitation Bill, 2026. This defection happened amidst the ongoing West Bengal election, when the whole nation was entrenched in debate and discussion around the curious case of ‘logical discrepancy’ affecting 1.25 crore electorate in the state.
The defection in April strengthened the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Rajya Sabha with its tally going up to 145 just 17 short of two-third majority mark in 244-member house in April this year. It seemed the AAP MPs’ defection opened a Pandora’s box as since the declaration of West Bengal assembly election results in the first week of May this defection gathered at an unusual pace.
As many as 58 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) defected to form an independent faction claiming themselves to be the real opposition party in the state assembly. The presiding officer recognised the leader of the rebel group as new leader of opposition, its deputy leaders and Chief Whip in the West Bengal assembly. It is a unique phenomenon happening in Indian democracy, where an opposition group is indirectly supporting the ruling party, paving the way for a kind of ‘manufactured opposition.’
Similarly, three Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Rajya Sabha resigned recently, reducing the effective strength of upper house and 20 from Lok Sabha broke away from TMC to merge with Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) – a regional party, which hasn’t even contested during 2024 General Election.And, interestingly the face of defecting TMC MP’s Kakoli Das Dastidar became the new president of NCPI.
All this happened in a very unusual manner, when outgoing NCPI founding president Sheuli Kundi claimed that she came to know about this merger through media and party secretary claiming that this merger happened based on discussion with her. Whatever be the case, this defection further strengthened the NDA tally in Lok Sabha to 314 seats in the 543-member house.
It however didn’t stop here as before the dust of controversy surrounding rebel TMC MPs merging with NCPI settles, another news about six of nine Shiv Sena-Uddhav Babasaheb Thackrey (SS-UBT) faction joining Shiv Sena (Shinde)- an ally of the BJP from Maharashtra began circulating. This systematic migration edges the ruling alliance closer to a coveted two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha—the magic number required to alter the constitutional fabric without legislative resistance of full strength of the lower house.
A question arises here how defections have become so easy with anti-defection law in place in India for preventing the floor crossing and disqualifying the member doing this. The answer lies in exception of Anti-Defection law which states “If a member goes out of his party due to a merger of the party with another party, when two-thirds of the members of the party have agreed to such a merger” and the deciding power of presiding officer of house “Under the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution (Anti-Defection Law), if any question arises as to whether a Member of the House has become subject to disqualification, the decision is made by the Speaker or Chairman of the House, not by the Presidentand not in accordance with the opinion of the Council of Union Ministers.”
This exception provided for two-third members merging with another party is the loophole of Anti-defection law, which is utilised for legalising defection and increasing mandate without any election. This kind of ‘political migration’ not only increases the strength of a party or alliance in the house but also functions as an exercise, which can be termed as process of ‘manufacturing mandate’ a prerequisite for passing constitutional amendment.It also raises an ethical question i.e.;an MLA or MP who won on the ticket of a political party joins another without even resigning, as if the party symbol had not helped them secure a single vote from a constituency.
It is a well-known fact that a party like TMC, SS-UBT have thousands of loyalists voting for the party in a constituency instead of the candidate. Hence, this ethical question becomes relevant. Moreover, the Rajya Sabha MPs defection is more morally problematic because these are elected by the vote of the party MLAs.Political parties and their leaders use all their prowess in a Rajya Sabha election to keep their MLAs intact for ensuring victory of party candidate as whip isn’t applicable in this election and there are high chances of cross-voting.
As the common saying goes, political leaders are the finest weather scientists with the best sense of judging direction of political winds and hence they align or realign themselves accordingly in the name of prevailing issues in the parent party as well as for the welfare and development of common man in their constituencies. However, the time only has the answer whether the common man benefits or not from these ‘political migration’, which is leading to the phenomenon of ‘manufacturing mandate’ and ‘the opposition’ together.But what is the solution to prevent this defection practice from becoming a norm?
Since the issue deals with self-interested lawmakers, electorates can’t expect the legislature to willingly close the very loopholes that empower them. Hence, there is a need for structural fix i.e., India needs definitive institutional reform rather than relying on the judiciary for ad-hoc directions or hoping for an impeccably ethical electorate. The first and foremost is changes in discretionary power of the presiding officer of house to decide on the question of disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of Indian Constitution because their inherent bias may transform the anti-defection law into a shield protecting defectors due to the political nature of appointment. Instead, as the Supreme Court itself suggested in the Keisham Meghachandra Singh (2020) case, this authority should be vested in an independent, permanent tribunal, which may be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge or handed directly to the Election Commission with a set of strict guidelines.
Furthermore, the exception of allowing a merger of ‘two-third’ needs a tighter redefinition to a merger of the party’s organisation rather than merely its legislative wing in a specific house of assembly or parliament. The base of Indian voter’s informed choice would continue to hollow out till the deciding authority is made neutral and the definition of a merger is tightened.
(The author is a research scholar in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. His research work focuses on intersection of digital technologies, electoral politics, campaigns and democracy in India)
