At the ‘Legally Speaking‘ event organized by NewsX, prominent figures including Supriya Shrinate (National Spokesperson, Congress), Aman Sinha (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India), and G.V.L. Narasimha Rao (Former Member of Rajya Sabha, BJP) engaged in a robust discussion on the topic: “Does One Nation One Election Erode India’s Federal Structure?”
The Importance of One Nation One Election
S.Y. Quraishi, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, remarked, “The subject here is on the table for more than 10 years or more. The current controversy has been started when Mr. Narendra Modi before he became PM in 2013. All 3 tiers of election bodies should be held simultaneously and he gave the reason, cost, paralysis of administrations, no policy decisions could be taken.”
He further noted that issues like casteism, communalism, crony capitalism, and corruption persist, and from the Election Commission’s perspective, simultaneous elections would be beneficial as “voters will be the same, and the machinery will be the same.”
Impact of Frequent Elections on Governance
G.V.L. Narasimha Rao emphasized the challenges of constant electoral cycles, stating, “Elections are an important part of democracy, and we are holding elections to elect government. If you have elections every 3 months, you’re continuedly in that election mode, then no govt. can work peacefully.”
Federal Concerns and Opposition
Addressing concerns about federalism, Supriya Shrinate argued, “The union cabinet has adopted the report presented by former president Kovind, likely to table the bill. 50% of the Indian states are not going to ratify this and also not able to pass the muster of the house.”
Cost Reduction Alternatives
When questioned about alternatives to reduce public expenditure on elections, Shrinate pointed out, “There are about 30 lakh elected representatives in local bodies. It’s a very fancy acronym ONOE.”
Constitutional Amendments and Implementation
Aman Sinha discussed the constitutional amendments required for implementing simultaneous elections: “Only 2 articles of the constitution are required to be amended, primarily article 83, 172. For the unexpired term supposing that if house is at loss of confidence in a particular leader of the house then in that scenario the election would happen for the expired term. Election year starts one year before any election is announced. Therefore, clearly one nation, one election is an integral part of developed India.”
Shrinate countered, questioning the assumptions behind the proposal: “On what basis has this been assumed that inflation would be curtailed?”
Consensus and Alternatives
Quraishi highlighted the lack of consensus on the issue: “Previously in 2013 PM Modi insisted that there should be a national debate which should lead to a consensus. But for the last 10 years, there has been no consensus. The idea was dropped.”
Sinha suggested minimal changes to existing laws: “The proposals which are in offing should make minimal changes. Article 82 itself provides that 82(1) when starts it says that Rajya Sabha will have a fixed tenure of 6 years. The same thing has to be incorporated and imbibed in 82 (2) by where lok sabha have a fix tenure and unexpired term supposing if some MP expires and the election is set aside for some reasons then the elections take place for the residual period only.”
Quraishi proposed a phased approach: “Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha’s election will be separated and panchayat election be also separate, panchayat election will be done after 100 days. The committee also stated that there would be a mid-term poll.”
Trust in Voters
Shrinate expressed concerns about the impact on regional parties: “People in Indian policy-making and polity believes that this is against the grain of the constitution, this is against the federal nature of governance. This whole thing in the regional party is being scared; Congress and BJP are the political parties but we can’t negate the relevance and the emergence of the regional parties.”
Quraishi provided data on voting behavior: “77% of people vote for the same party and separated by one month it dropped down to 61%. Simultaneous elections actually influence voting behaviour adversely.”
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Sinha noted the support from regional parties: “As far as regional parties have been concerned, there was about 50-60 parties were invited by high level committee. Majority of the party has also supported this idea.”
