Are independents irritants?

It's quite funny to hear from Mr. Singh that independent candidates are spoilers... that too while understanding that the musings are from someone who never had the courage even to contest a panchayat election. In my opinion, the groupings as political parties are nothing but creating dependencies to a free thinking person... Once you are a political party member, you are a slave of ideology (not necessarily the dictionary meaning of it. It's the most abused/misused term in Indian politics next after "secularism" ).. It adds responsibility to justify every action of the political party or group you belong, even if you don't agree with it. An independent can never be a slave of any "ideology"... His ultimate commitment is to common man who vote for him. Unfortunately our democracy doesn't have enough room for worthy independent candidates to contest.. the entire electoral process is governed by money. You need to have sacks of greens to contest and win elections... In the ideal world of a vibrant democracy, independent candidates have a great role to play. But again we hardly are a matured franchise... We measure the caste, creed, colour of skin, language, ... or whatever way we can slice the candidate demographically, other than the ability and wisdom of the individual, while we decide our mandate....