Democracy is one of those terms that every politician conveniently exploits to make their position on a certain issue sound morally legit. Based on the side you are in ,you talk about times when democratic values were curbed as a direct affect of state action.
In fact ,every single political party in this country has played this card and ironically every single one of them has been party to such acts.
Given ,we are a matured democracy,the first thing I would want is the total freedom for elected representatives in the assembly as well as in the parliament to stand for the legislations they feel is right for their constituency,State and Nation as a whole.
The MPs & MLAs,should be given a right to take issue based positions and vote for policies and bills accordingly.Limiting their rights to stand for a cause they believe in ,because the powerful few in the party doesn’t seem to support is a joke.
Boasting about democracy and then following the system of whip and force the representatives to adhere to your party’s position on a policy/bill doesn’t make any sense to me atleast. Atleast it doesn’t do justice to what we call as Democracy.
May be if it is about the matter of stability of a government over fears of horse trading, the whip could be in place for no-confidence motions alone.
Not to justify horse trading ,but if the MLA/MP of your party can switch sides purely on the basis of money – it tells a lot about the kind of people in the party and the inability of the leadership to keep the flock together.
Thoughts??
Follow the White Rabbit 