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TalkPoint: One nation, one poll — a good idea or an impractical plan for India?

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The Law Commission Tuesday released a draft white paper suggesting amends in the Constitution to conduct simultaneous elections across the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party have been pushing the idea of ‘one nation, one poll’ in the past year saying it will improve governance and save money.

ThePrint asks: One nation, one poll — a good idea or an impractical plan for India?


Simultaneous elections is a good reform because we spend more time campaigning than governing

Vinay Sahasrabuddhe
MP, BJP

‘One nation, one election’ is an idea that merits serious consideration especially in a country like ours. Some people are saying that it is not a realisable possibility. To them, I have only one thing to say: ‘Nothing is impossible provided we have the requisite political will to do it.’

Whatever little reforms or changes are required to ease the process and streamline elections in India, whether in the constitution or politically, there is always space for debate to reach a consensus on the issue.

This is not a question of thrusting or imposing a reform on anyone. That is not what we are trying to do in the government. All we are asking for is that those who are opposed to the idea should be a little more open minded. Change can be a good thing.

‘One nation, one election’ is not a BJP agenda, it is a national agenda. Most democratic countries have one election every five years or so. But in India, we spend more time campaigning than we do governing. Every three months, we find ourselves on the election wheel again. Such a reform will allow legislators to focus on good governance and public administration of which social welfare is an integral part. We must take cognizance of what our democracy needs for it to grow holistically.


Simultaneous elections are not a feasible option given the number of technical difficulties it is bound to run into

S.Y. Quraishi
Former Chief Election Commissioner 

The idea of simultaneous elections for the national and state assemblies has been in the limelight for some time now. Proponents of simultaneous elections maintain that frequent elections lead to massive expenditure, policy paralysis due to the Model Code of Conduct coming into play and, put a vast burden on the manpower deployed. They further suggest that election is the time when crony capitalism, casteism and communal politics is at its peak. Simultaneous elections, on the other hand, will ensure that such evils surface no more than once every five years.

While I believe that simultaneous elections might be desirable, I also believe they are not a feasible option, given the huge amount of technical difficulties that the concept is bound to run into. For example, what happens if the Lok Sabha is dissolved in 13 days like in 1998? Do we upturn the people’s political will and dissolve all state assemblies?

Further, separate elections are not without its own share of benefits. It ensures that politicians remain accountable to the people as they have to frequently face them and ask for votes. Elections also result in job creation at the grassroots level. It also enables people to vote at the adequate level of government, not having to vote in national elections for local issues, or for national issues in local elections.

The Law Commission has come out with a draft report suggesting a few amendments to the Constitution to smoothen the way for simultaneous elections. It has, however, not attempted to answer most of those questions. It hasn’t included one-third of the elections, namely the local bodies elections, on the grounds that it is a state subject. So what? The constitutional amendment does not preclude anything contained in the Constitution including state subjects. It remains to be seen how political parties and the jurists would respond.


The BJP’s idea of ‘one nation, one poll’ has been nothing but kite flying from day one

Manish Tewari
Spokesperson, Congress

There is merit to the entire ‘one nation one poll’ idea primarily because India is on an election treadmill every three months. Therefore, if from the Panchayat to the Parliament, elections could be completed in one particular month every five years, with Jammu and Kashmir as the exception because it has a six year Vidhan Sabha term, then this country can get on with the business of governance.

However, the challenge lies not only in aligning the electoral cycle once and for all, but more importantly in keeping it aligned. For example, a state government loses confidence on the floor of the house. Would it be politically, morally, and constitutionally correct to then try and find an arrangement within the confines of the assembly as it stands constituted or would it not be appropriate to go back to the people?

In a democracy, the prevailing wisdom always has been that when a government loses confidence of the House, it is always more appropriate to go back to the people. In that case, it would not only be obtuse but fundamentally undemocratic to try and find fresh arrangements.

The BJP after having plugged the idea of ‘one nation, one poll’ now wants to walk back from it on the premise that there is no consensus. Their entire object of promoting it in the first place was the supposed omnipotence and omnipresence of Narendra Modi. They hoped his popularity would be able to perpetuate the rule of the BJP. However, with spreading disenchantment across the length and breadth of the country, they have lost their enthusiasm for the idea.

This idea has been nothing more than kite-flying from day one. One nation, one election; one nation, one tax; sit down India, stand up India; khelo india, gao India— are all manifestations of the BJP’s intrinsic belief that you can do prashashan with only bhashan.


If implemented “one nation, one poll” would be disastrous in the long term

Meghnad S.
Political analyst

The idea of simultaneous polls is being toyed around with for a while, but it has accelerated in the past few years. Our ex-president Pranab Mukherjee, current President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have all expressed a desire to implement ‘One nation, one poll’, where state assemblies will go for elections in tandem with the general Lok Sabha elections.

There are a few glaring problems with this idea. One, it is impossible to ensure that once the assembly and general elections are synchronised, they will remain that way even after a year of doing so. Since state and central government are separate entities, keeping in mind our federal structure, there is a chance that a particular state government might collapse even within an year of coming to power. If that happens, the election calendar goes awry again. As they say, even a week is a long time in politics.

Which brings us to the second point, why now? If a national political party like the BJP is leading the charge — a party that treats each election like a battle, where they go on conquering one state after another by hook or crook — it’s only reasonable to look at this move with a wee bit of suspicion. Since the official election calendar is yet to be decided, we must be wary of what is incoming. Simultaneous elections might be used as a way to give an advantage to states that are already ruled by BJP while disadvantaging others. For instance, one report speculated that there is talk of extending the tenure of the Uttar Pradesh government by two years, all to sync the calendar.

And third, the national parties with larger funds and more machinery on the ground, will be at a clear advantage in a ‘one nation, one election’ scenario. Smaller regional parties will have to battle these national parties using limited resources and more localised messaging. National parties, on the other hand, can have a unified national message in place which they can bank on everywhere across India.

‘One nation, one poll’, if implemented, might lead to a two-party system and would be disastrous in the long term. If it is implemented in the same manner in which demonetisation was done overnight, which is a possibility, one can’t even imagine the short-term damage it’ll cause as well.


Without political consensus and public support simultaneous elections cannot work 

Anubhuti Vishnoi
Deputy Editor, ThePrint

On the face of it, there can hardly be an argument against a more organised election schedule for the country, which spares us from frequent disruptions holding back governance and also spares everyone the shrill and often dangerous political rhetoric that inevitably accompanies every election.

Those advocating a ‘one nation, one poll’ model argue for a greater method to the madness and a smoother, predictable and stable election schedule. The idea has been strongly pitched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and, as if on cue, the Niti Aayog and Law Commission have also chimed in. The Election Commission of India had also previously backed the move. All put together, the Modi government and its entire machinery is weighing in favour of simultaneous polls.

The radical idea, however, will remain just that if two key stakeholders are not on board with it. The political class and the Indian voter.

Little has been done so far to even educate these two on the need for simultaneous polls and dispel the clouds of suspicion around it— convincing them to support it, is a long stretch.

Much more than reports backing the government’s mission will have to be summoned in to make simultaneous polls a reality.

As on date, almost all key opposition parties are suspicious of the motives behind the ‘one nation, one poll’ idea.

Even with all the numbers that the BJP has in the parliament, the simultaneous election concept cannot take off without building political consensus and public support for it.


Compiled by Deeksha Bhardwaj, journalist at ThePrint. 

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2 COMMENTS

  1. BJP is absolutely foolish to think that Indians are not capable of voting one party for Centre and another for state, if they feel like. Modi loves talking about the Modi wave (what else). But classic error borne out of hubris — his government is due an anti-incumbency vote. He has done nothing in 4 years that makes him look good, with his utter lack of ideas and intelligence. So, a wave can go either way – it can benefit Congress, if he actually assumes people will not use their brains to think independently for state and centre. Also, knowing abt waves, one would hope, Modi knows about tides (when waves violently go back). So, he can try this stunt hoping Indians are ignorant, uneducated idiots who will surf the grand Modi wave. But like India Shining, this will backfire. Not because of anything else, but because bjps incompetence reveals itself every passing day. Have 10 simultaneous elections, I say, BJP will lose them all together.

  2. Impractical. Also undermines our federalism, which we need to keep safe. On a more practical plane, a storm that sweeps all before it comes only once in a generation.

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