Ruling BJP is promoting the idea of One Nation One Election. On the surface of it, this looks like a good idea. There are several reasons for it to look like a good idea.
One is that elections are a costly exercise and elections happening all the time cost the nation more than one election done all across the country at the same time. Two is that if the same party comes to power in the center and in the state, it can serve the people better and one election can make that possible as one party can pitch this to the electorate as a golden opportunity to have what is called as a ‘double-engine’ government. Three is that it will save time, effort, energy and money for political party’s when they run a campaign across the country all at once rather than at different times. Four is that once the elections are over, the winners can get down to the business of governance rather than running around doing election rallies.
On the surface this all looks good and something that can lead to better governance.
On the ground situation is quite the contrary. For one, the issues that the country faces and what a state faces are different. That is why we have witnessed that voters vote differently when it comes to central elections and state elections. They vote differently when it comes to elections to corporations too.
Second is that there exists a grave danger of having a brute majority government. The current central government, also known as Modi Sarkar, is a one man government (all other leaders hardly have any say) with a brute majority of 303 seats in 545 member Lok Sabha. We have seen what this majority can do to the government. We have seen acts like currency demonetization taking place without any debate or discussion. We have seen Farm Laws being made without any debate or discussion and forced down people’s throats only to be later withdrawn after massive loss of lives and productivity. We have seen CAA/NRC laws made but not implemented after popular resentment against them. We have seen sudden decisions of Lock Down and complete domination of one man on all acts of the government, where Modi’s photo appears on everything that the government does. We must remember that the government does everything with money collected from the people. It is not that Modi is putting in any of his own money or has brought that money from somewhere personal. If this is the situation with just brute majority at the center, imagine what would be the situation if one man / one party controlled all the states and center.
Third is the fact that no single party has the ability to win all the states on its own. BJP has drawn a blank in South India and is receding from Central India too with Maharashtra and MP likely to slip out its grasp. So, no matter whether we have a One Nation One Election, the states may still return different party’s to the assemblies thus defeating the purpose of having ‘double-engine’ governments in all states.
Fourth is the fact that India is a Union of States and we have a federal structure. A danger exists that once a single party comes to power across the country, it may treat that as a mandate for dismantling of the federal structure and make it into One Nation with no boundaries. This will put paid to regional aspirations and regional development.
Even if the Central Government was to propose One Nation One Election, it may not be possible due to reasons such as;
State Assemblies have different starting date and expiry dates. Even if they were somehow coordinated to expire all at once under a new law, there is no guarantee that they assemblies will not get dissolved mid-term due to political instability in the state. Thus One Nation One Election may become a futile exercise.
Such a move will require ratification by two thirds of the states and that does not look likely to happen as BJP, even if it controls the center, does not control two thirds of the states.
At best this is a diversionary tactics to take focus out of real and pressing problem and look for solutions that have no intrinsic method of solving those problems. Our problems are rising prices, poverty, joblessness, falling exports, falling rupee, failing MSME sector, rising imports even of ordinary items, fuel security and more. One Nation One Election will not solve any of these.
Our Election Commission does not even have the ability to conduct one election in a state on the same day, it does that in phases spread over several days. Our EVM’s are under a cloud of suspicion with many a civil society group asking them to be done away with. Our security forces will be inadequate to hold one election across the country at one time. Eventually what we may have is one election conducted over months with results declared later and EVM’s being manipulated in the meantime. Our current ruling party has been accused of all these in the past.
