Dear Raghu,
In a democracy, political party is an indispensable denomination of people's representation. Therefore, floating a political party or being a member of any political party by any one either as an individual or as a paid employee is not an unlawful activity unless and otherwise such particular political party is banned by the Government; nor it can be equated with that of any employment i.e., either self-employment or paid employment. Yet, there is specific rule prohibiting Government employees being members of any political party or taking part either directly or indirectly in political activities sponsored by any political party during their tenure of employment. So far as employees of private sector are concerned, it depends on the service regulations of the industrial establishment concerned. If the rules of the establishment prohibit simultaneous membership of its employees in any political party, of course, it will not be illegal as the employee has the discretion to choose either his employment in the organization or his political party membership. Though I concur with the view of our learned friend Babu Alexander that the formal association of an employee with a political party can not alter his susceptibility to the rules of discipline of the establishment in case of misconducts, in my opinion, such a sanction either explicit or implicit would certainly lead to unnecessary problems in the organization. Suppose the employer belongs to diagonally opposite political party? If the entire employees belong to different, different political parties in varying numbers? If a manager initiating disciplinary action on an employee belonging to a different political party due to his political animosity or otherwise? If the majority of workmen of a particular section start complaining against some alleged ill-treatment meted out to them by their supervisors because of their allegiance to a particular political party? Certainly it will be a mess and state of anarchy. The place as well as the process of employment is a co-operative endeavour of a closed social group comprising of people with individual differences and permitting political inclinations among them reflect on their team work will certainly disrupt the well-knit social fabric. Therefore, though membership of an industrial employee in a political party is, per se, not illegal nor it can be construed as dual employment, it is advisable to prohibit it appropriately.