Sanjay Raut warns against defections: ‘Democracy will turn into hell’

Shiv Sena has inducted seven sitting opposition MLAs in the last few months.

As several leaders from the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are crossing over to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party or Shiv Sena in the run-up to the Assembly elections, Sena leader Sanjay Raut criticised the defections and said that in the “race to change the paradise”, democracy will turn into a “hell”.

Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, in his weekly column in party mouthpiece Saamana, said that one should be “cautious” of the new entrants as politicians today “lack character” as they “change their political masters” quickly. (HT FILE)

Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, in his weekly column in party mouthpiece Saamana, said that one should be “cautious” of the new entrants as politicians today “lack character” as they “change their political masters” quickly.

The Shiv Sena has inducted seven sitting opposition MLAs in the last few months. “We should be cautious of the ones who are standing at the gates of the paradise and want to enter it. If they become the gardeners of the paradise, then it won’t take long for it to turn into hell. They swore on their deities and have switched ‘paradise’. The Congress and NCP were once the paradise… In the competition to switch, the paradise shouldn’t turn into ‘hell’,” Raut wrote in his column.

The Sena leader took potshots at the BJP and said that the “files” of former Congress leader Kripashankar Singh, who is facing a probe for disproportionate assets, was “cleansed in the washing machine” of the BJP. In a veiled attack on the BJP’s strategy to decimate the opposition, Raut said that an Opposition-free country will be detrimental for democracy.

Raut went on to laud former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for creating the importance of opposition by introducing procedures such as calling attention motion and the business advisory committee.

“There can be differences with Pandit Nehru or the Congress, but they should have respect for the traditions within the parliamentary democracy. After Independence, the Congress came up with several traditions and processes in Parliament. The calling-attention motion and business advisory committee are there due to the Congress; no other country has it. Nehru gave importance to the opposition… Atal Bihari Vajpayee too took the same path,” Raut said.