What is Whip
Recently, MPs ‘Syed Naseer Hussain’ and ‘Chaya Verma’ have been appointed by the Congress party as the whip of the Rajya Sabha. After which, the number of Whip and Chief Whips in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has become equal.
What is ‘Whip’?
- It is a special officer of any political party, who acts as an ‘enforcer’ of the party between the Parliament or the Legislative Assembly.
- Political parties within the Parliament appoint a senior member from amongst their members to issue the whips, this member is called the ‘Chief Whip’, and additional whips are appointed by the parties to assist him. The concept of whips in India is derived from the British parliamentary system.
- A whip, in parliamentary parlance, is also a written order issued by a political party to its members, to be present at any election in Parliament and to participate in the voting in a particular manner.
Role of the Whip:
Party whips, as part of their party’s official policy in the House, act to ensure that their party members attend and vote in the voting session.
In case of violation of the whip
- Disqualification proceedings can be taken against a member of the House for violating the party whip in Parliament. If, 2/3 of the members of a party in the House violate the party whip, they are exempted from disqualification proceedings under the ‘Defection Act’.
- It may be noted that the disqualification of the members is decided by the Speaker of the House.
Limits of Whip:
In some cases, such as the Presidential election, the whip cannot order a Member of Parliament or a Member of the Legislative Assembly to vote in any particular manner.
Source – The Hindu
