Do Independent candidates play spoilers in Indian elections?

This comment has come from strange quarter. Honourable prime minister Manmohan Singh made this comment during an election campaign in south Mumbai. PTI reports that he said that the independent candidates can not win and they are their to spoil the game and take a few votes from the Congress party. It seems that he has gone too far in his comments.

Every party has a right to promote their candidates and criticise other parties. That what the democratic election all about but criticising the role of independent candidates is an attack on the institution. There are around a thousand party in the election fray this time. Many of these parties will have only one candidate and they might not even get 1000 votes in total. They are not better or different from the independent candidates in any sense. So should the prime minister criticise the role of these small regional parties as well. If these parties or independent candidates are spoilers than why the constitution allow them to contest?

In fact this remark is not on individuals but on the institution. This remark can be compared to a situation when he starts promoting that BJP or CPI or Akali party is spoiler rather than saying saying do not vote for Adwani or Karat or Badal. If we are so much concerned about the independent candidates than why not merge all the parties in two or three parties like corporate mergers and then ban formation of any new party or independent candidates. In fact this is the beauty of our system that it gives freedom to anyone to contest. Indian political party system is so undemocratic that many people can not think of ever getting ticket to contest or any significant post in their life time. Be it Congress, Shiv Sena, SP or BSP, all parties are run by a family or individuals. There is reward for hard work in the parties. People who have money, name or power can come from nowhere and contest election. Otherwise how come Sanjay dutt, Nafisa Ali, Shashi Tharoor, Azharuddin, Navjot singh can ever get ticket. None of these have ever done anything for the people of the constituencies they are contesting from in particular and country in general. They were busy in their fields making money and enjoying life.

Manmohan Singh himself is not better than any independent candidate and can be considered spoiler as well. He has rented a house in Assam for around last 20 years to get himself register in the polling list but he rarely lives there. In fact, he does not even bother to cast his vote. What example he creates for rest of the country? There can not be any excuse for not to cast his or her vote by the prime minister of the country and he has no right to condemn an institution of independent candidates.