One Nation, One Election or Simultaneous Elections is a proposal by the Narendra Modi government to simultaneously conduct the union general elections and the assembly elections; that is, the elections to elect the MPs to the Lok Sabha and MLAs to be elected to the Vidhan Sabhas of all 28 states will be conducted at the same time. In March 2024, a committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind submitted a report on ‘One Nation, One Election’. It has recommended a two-step electoral process: First, elections to the Lok Sabha and assemblies, followed by municipal and panchayat polls within 100 days.
While the idea has been discussed for long, it also raises concerns over the federal structure of the country and how central issues may gain precedence over local and regional issues if the elections are conducted at the same time. The Opposition parties, reacting to the Kovind panel’s submission, has decried the move, saying it will result in “dictatorship” and spell a “death knell for federalism”.
Simultaneous elections is not a bad idea as is being drummed by critics who in any case would not support an idea that comes from Modi. So first they have to be ignored and there is nothing wrong for ignoring them as their objectives have been to play the politics. Next get the acts right this time i.e. use the lessons from implementing GST and also demonetisation. As no secrecy is to be maintained in this case, public debate should be taken care of.
Today I listened to the Shekhar Gupta’s views on this topic. He has not been as serious in this as he usually is. His quote from Yadav’s analogy of shifting river’s path to solve the traffic problem on river bridge is at the best is a joke on such a serious matter as helding elections together. Shekhar’s arguments that follows afterwards don’t analyse the arguments in completeness for both sides. Shekhar can provide an unbiased analysis by presenting the two sides for each argument. For example regional parties would be at disadvantage financially. Sekhar should explain the financing of regional parties in both the cases i.e. with and without, which aspect of financing would be affected and why?
Left liberals and intellectuals have one more opportunity to throw away their masks and explain to people without taking sides as people can see it through. Otherwise take it for granted people would ignore them.