• To be an independent voice
• To strive for scrapping of 10th Schedule of Constitution used as a weapon by political parties

New Delhi: Former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who has been a vocal critic of the Congress leadership, announced that he quit the party on May 16 as he filed his nomination as an Independent candidate for Rajya Sabha (RS) with Samajwadi Party (SP)’s backing.

He has decided to be an independent candidate and said there is no question of joining any other political party. “A time comes when I have to move forward to serve the Indian democracy and Parliament better by being an independent voice, an unshackled voice of the people of India and the opposition. I will now work to unite the opposition parties against the BJP and will continue to fight against the wrong policies and politics of the Modi Government,” he said adding “To make the larger unity of opposition parties, one should show a spirit of accommodation vis-a-vis others and their views.” 

Sibal, who was Congress Minister in the UPA Governments and had won two Lok Sabha elections from Delhi, entered the Rajya Sabha last time from UP as a Congress candidate with SP backing. He had made his Parliament debut some decades ago by entering the RS from Bihar with RJD’s backing.

The Supreme Court lawyer said he will also strive for ‘the scrapping’ of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, which empowers the leadership of the political parties to issue whips to their respective MPs and MLAs to confine them to the party line and discipline and allow the leadership to disqualify those who violate it under the provisions of the anti-defection law.

“There is a need to get the 10th Schedule scrapped because it is being used by the leadership of political parties to suppress the independent views of elected representatives of the people of India,” said Sibal.

“The 10th Schedule is being used to silence, to threaten disqualification (from the House) of anyone with a different view on an issue. Because of this, there is no democracy but only ‘guided democracy’ here, in every political party. That is a big concern,” he said.