Politics in India has long turned into a market where an election result carrying the public aspirations is turned on its head by those in "power" resorting to baiting legislators by offering them huge amounts of money. To a layman, especially to a voter who assumes his or her ballot is valued in a thriving democracy, this commodification amounts to political chicanery that is not only disheartening but also weakens the very system of empowerment.
Blowing democratically elected governments to smithereens by trying every trick in the book amounts to the uprooting of the foundations of democracy. Something similar was attempted in Telangana recently. Chief Minister KCR alleged that the BJP attempted to poach his party MLAs by offering them money and contracts. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal also recently stated that his party MLAs too were baited by the BJP in Delhi and Punjab. It goes without saying that all political parties resort to blame games and assume a moral high ground. However, given an opportunity, they would all rush to prove the maxim 'politics makes strange bedfellows'.
Beginning with the ouster of EMS Namboodiripad-led Kerala government 60 years ago, the Congress demolished the opposition-led governments in several states. Indira Gandhi ousted the NTR government which had a full majority in 1984. Over a period of time, BJP has emerged as an invincible force due to its committed cadre and the organisational support from RSS.
Ever since attaining the peak position, its aggressive attempts to poach rival parties and demolish the opposition-led state governments to establish its own have been going on unabated. The Lotus bloomed in the waters of defection in Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Goa and Karnataka. The ruling party buried the coalition government of Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP in Maharashtra. The saffron party's tactics, however, are not surprising as any political outfit, in its heyday, looks for opportunities to bait leaders from other parties into their fold by hook or crook.