The self-declared non-biological Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at it again. He’s doing something he has developed into a fine art over the last decade; it is Modi’s finely honed expertise—namely deploying the weapons of mass distraction. Just when a singularly undistinguished and mediocre National Democratic Alliance government passed a milestone of 100 days in power without any fanfare or Modi-style band baaja baraat, bang! Here comes yet another weapon of mass distraction—One Nation, One Election, or, as the criticism goes, “Oh no!”
On 18 September, the Cabinet cleared the proposal for One Nation, One Election or simultaneous elections for state assemblies and Lok Sabha. The announcement again revealed that Modi is not only unleashing his brand of WMDs, but also that the PM is becoming increasingly distant from reality. Modi inhabits a fantasy bubble where he still thinks of himself as a “divine being”. He believes he is living in a pre-June 2024 era when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoyed absolute majority, and his own personality cult dominated. But today, the so-called “Modi Factor” is on a downward spiral.
The idea of ONOE
The ONOE law will require two constitutional amendments, which means both Houses will have to pass it with a two-thirds majority. To pass the Bill, the NDA needs 362 in the Lok Sabha and 166 in the Rajya Sabha, numbers it is nowhere near close to. The NDA, in fact, falls far short of the two-thirds majority required to pass any constitutional amendments. Thus, floating the ONOE idea now is simply yet another stab at headline management, aimed at diverting the national conversation away from pressing issues like the Manipur crisis, SEBI revelations, and examination paper leaks. The BJP is attempting to create yet more artificial hype and hoopla among the Sangh Parivar faithful. There’s a cynicism and condescension behind these WMDs. Modi assumes that the government he leads can act on whatever whim and fancy he wants, (be it demonitisation or lockdown with four hours’ notice) and citizens will simply swallow his repeated pantomime acts with wide-eyed adoration.
The government is trotting out two facile explanations for why ONOE is important — that it will reduce poll expenditure and improve the quality of governance. Both are fallacious arguments. According to estimates, election expenditure at the moment costs the Election Commission over Rs 4,000 crore and ONOE would cost less. However, given the staggering amounts that parties and candidates now spend on elections—the expenditure on the 2024 general election was reportedly Rs 1.35 trillion, the most expensive election ever—and the sheer size of India’s rapidly increasing electorate, it is unlikely that simply reducing the frequency of elections would mean a drastic fall in the monies spent, either by the government or by political parties. The cost differences are likely to be minimal with a humongous amount of bandobast needed to conduct both sets of elections at the same time.
The argument that ONOE would lead to better governance is utter hogwash. In fact, the opposite is true. Modi only wakes up to the needs of governance when there are elections ahead. In 2024, Modi slashed fuel prices by Rs 2 weeks ahead of general elections and the price of cooking gas by Rs 100. For years before 2024 when global prices moderated the price benefits were not passed on to consumers, but once elections were announced—down came the prices! Modi is playing to the galleries in his urban middle-class vote bank by harping on costs. Democracy is not a company whose costs need to be balanced. Democracy is about the will of the people and the people’s right to bring down a government that loses public trust.
The Modi government says ONOE is better for governance, yet the truth is governance, and the needs of the people are better served with frequent elections. Witness the slew of administrative activity suddenly taking place in Maharashtra where polls are due in a few weeks. A new scheme for women, the Ladki Bahin Yojana, was announced in July 2024, providing financial help to women; other schemes providing for gas cylinders and electricity bill waivers for farmers have been announced. Frequent elections give voters a chance to renegotiate their relationship with the government and get ruling dispensations to respond to public demands. They keep governments on their toes.
BJP supporters are resorting to the absurd argument that a return ONOE is needed because this was the norm in the 1950s. This argument shows a blind disregard for historical context. Today’s reality is vastly different from Jawaharlal Nehru’s time. Since the 1950s, there has been a huge efflorescence in the number of states, number of parties, political movements, political identities, issues, agitations and aspirations. New local parties and local elites have emerged. In the ’50s, India was only just emerging out of the colonial period. Democracy had not yet diversified and there was a single dominant party, the Congress. From 1967 onwards, there has been an exponential growth of regional parties, based on multiple local identities.
Also read: Modi’s BJP wants us to forget Vajpayee’s old, weak BJP. IC 814 facts not the real issue
An old mindset
Why should regional parties with regional aspirations all be funneled into a single national referendum? Why should states be asked to follow the diktat of Delhi? How can complex regional issues be clubbed with national debates? The last three decades have seen an intense regionalisation of politics; we could even call it a hyper-localisation of politics. Myriad parties are in the fray not just at the state level but even at the panchayat level. These parties are concerned with issues that have nothing to do with the goings on in Delhi. All politics is local, and there is a far better chance that voters’ local interests will be heard in local and state elections, rather than all of those issues being subsumed in a larger national choice about a single personality.
In fact, the ONOE idea smacks of an old imperious mindset of Delhi-knows-best and even offends Article 1 of our Constitution, which states “India that is Bharat is a Union of States”. Today more than ever India lives in her states, and it is state governments that are at the forefront of transforming citizens’ lives on the ground.
The BJP does not come into the ONOE debate with clean hands. Its track record has been to confront opposition parties in the states, break parties and topple governments. Nine democratically elected governments have been toppled in nine years: Arunachal Pradesh (2016), Manipur (2017), Meghalaya (2018), Goa (2017), Karnataka (2019), Madhya Pradesh (2020), Maharashtra, (2022) Uttarakhand (2016), Puducherry (2021). This has been done through threats, allurements, and the brazen and blatant misuse of central agencies. Bengal has been denied MNREGA dues, Tamil Nadu has complained that it’s been denied flood relief.
The Modi-led BJP has downsized India’s only Muslim-majority state into a Union Territory. It delayed the imposition of a lockdown in a public health emergency like Covid, simply because it wanted to topple the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. In Maharashtra, the BJP broke two regional parties, Shiv Sena and NCP simply because it wanted power at all costs. The BJP has orchestrated wholesale defections across the Northeast to install its own governments. It created a government in Arunachal Pradesh by getting almost the entire Congress to merge with the BJP. Can such a vindictive BJP government be trusted to implement ONOE on the grounds that it wants to restore constitutional values?
The BJP’s motive in trying to recraft a unitary India stem from its defeat in 2024. Regional parties have emerged as major challengers to the saffron juggernaut, which is why the BJP is trying to create a single national election in which the identities of the regional parties are made irrelevant. The BJP’s motives are purely political, and the saffron party cannot be trusted to bring in such a massive constitutional amendment that would have huge implications for Centre-state relations.
Importantly, voters in 2024 have emphatically rejected the BJP’s one-party-one-leader-one-religion-one-language mantra. Voters have voted decisively for pluralism and multi-party democracy as seen in the strong showing by state-based parties like Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Trinamool Congress (TMC), and Samajwadi Party. The voter has shown that she wants to encourage and endorse the diversity dividend.
The ONOE trial balloon is only yet another gimmick. After 10 years, voters are tired of the politics of jumla. No, Mr Modi, forget One Nation One Election, voters do not even want one leader or one party.
Sagarika Ghose is a Rajya Sabha MP, All India Trinamool Congress. She tweets @sagarikaghose. Views are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)
Only McCauley’s children, educated in OxBridge know well.
Multiple factual errors like “NDA doesn’t have a two thirds majority”, and many other emotive statements borne of sheer hatred….
Of course, Sagarika knows best.
Everything someone like you say or write reeks of malevolence. How long can people be fooled by such charlatans masquerading as journalists?
Shameless journalist. Throughout her career was a politician masquerading as a journalist.
I wonder what makes Mr. Shekhar Gupta give her a platform to spread her nonsense.
When a retired judge or general or bureaucrat joins any political party The Print goes hammer and tongs at them. Yet, when a “journalist” does the same, instead they allow her to use their platform.