ONE NATION , ONE ELECTIONS - issues and way forward
The idea of "ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION" is not new to India , the initial elections which started from 1951 and stretched back till 1967 were simultaneous elections for both the parliament and the state legislative assemblies , but the cycle got disrupted due to premature dissolutions of some state legislative assemblies in 1968 and 1969, and dissolution of parliament in 1970. Two conclusion were drawn from the previous test of simultaneous elections :-
1) The party at center got the lead in centre as well as at state assemblies. And,
2) The idea is not viable in long term to every time conduct simultaneous elections.
This idea was again taken by Law commission in its report published in 1999 , where law commission told to revert back to Simultaneous election for the parliament and the state legislative assemblies.
In 2014 , BJP in its manifesto for election mentioned to have a political debate on the idea to have electoral reforms by taking the idea of "ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION" , and again after the re-election of BJP in 2019 , our PM Narendra Modi reiterated the importance of coming to a political consensus of having simultaneous elections in the country. This can be argued that this was done in keeping in mind the fact that a whopping Rs 60,000 crore was spent on the Lok Sabha election of 2019. But the questions are raised by opposition parties on the idea of simultaneous elections and its Practicality. So, let's take the question " IS IT REALLY VIABLE TO HAVE SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS IN INDIA ?" .
Firstly , discussing the benefits of having simultaneous election at centre as well as at state level are :-
1) It will drastically reduce the burden of finance (expenditure of political parties on campaigning and other works and expenditure on EVMs) as well as manpower's burden which is used on in the election.
2) It will facilitate the government in administrative functioning , which gets halted and affects the economy due to low government expenditure, during election when model code of conduct gets imposed.
3) The evils of casteism, communalism , corruption etc. will not be evoked every time when election held, due to simultaneous elections.
4) Time for election will be reduced which will facilitate the people who have restrictions during election, and they can concentrate on other works .
But if we see at the current scenario, there is no political consensus on this issue. Critics of this idea says that the idea of "ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION" is not practical for Indian type of political system , and yes there argument is legitimate in this scenario.
The political structure of India is based on Parliamentary form of government where the Executives are responsible to the lower house of parliament (Lok Sabha) , and if we implement the idea of simultaneous elections and ,if a government will fall either in states or at center, then the whole process of law-making with governance will be halted which will affect us.
And if we still want to have simultaneous elections with existing political structure of federalism, then we have to make amendments in the following articles :-
Art-83 (tenure of lower house of parliament)
Art-85 (dissolution of parliament)
Art-173 (tenure of state legislative assembly)
Art-356 (president's rule)
Representation of people's act,1951
And for that , political consensus is needed.
Otherwise, we have to shift to presidential form of government where the Executives are not responsible to the lower house of parliament , in that case functioning of lawmaking will be still continued if government is not there. But this possibility seems illegitimate and impossible as for that we have to amend the basic structure of our constitution which is not an option with us.
IN MY VIEW , the idea of simultaneous election has a good motive , but it is not practical at the current point of time. So, instead of just looking for a political consensus and waiting for it , we have to look for an alternative by reforming the loopholes in our electioneering process , which may not have the same effect as simultaneous elections but will facilitate us.
1) We have to set a expenditure bracket for the political parties so that they will not use extra money out of that . Also setting that bracket based on the performance of political parties in the polls is an option worth considering. This will reduce the cases of political funding by private firms to political parties. And most importantly, we have to make these parties more accountable for that inclusion of political parties under RTI is also an option.
2) Decreasing the no. of phases in which election held and the no. of days will help the respective government to focus more on the developmental work instead of having in election mode for a longer period of time.
Election is a very important process in a Democracy , and for India which is the largest Democracy in the whole world , it becomes important to have political reforms to have more responsible government with more transparency in electioneering process and at the same time having less expenditure in our elections .
1) The party at center got the lead in centre as well as at state assemblies. And,
2) The idea is not viable in long term to every time conduct simultaneous elections.
This idea was again taken by Law commission in its report published in 1999 , where law commission told to revert back to Simultaneous election for the parliament and the state legislative assemblies.
In 2014 , BJP in its manifesto for election mentioned to have a political debate on the idea to have electoral reforms by taking the idea of "ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION" , and again after the re-election of BJP in 2019 , our PM Narendra Modi reiterated the importance of coming to a political consensus of having simultaneous elections in the country. This can be argued that this was done in keeping in mind the fact that a whopping Rs 60,000 crore was spent on the Lok Sabha election of 2019. But the questions are raised by opposition parties on the idea of simultaneous elections and its Practicality. So, let's take the question " IS IT REALLY VIABLE TO HAVE SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS IN INDIA ?" .
Firstly , discussing the benefits of having simultaneous election at centre as well as at state level are :-
1) It will drastically reduce the burden of finance (expenditure of political parties on campaigning and other works and expenditure on EVMs) as well as manpower's burden which is used on in the election.
2) It will facilitate the government in administrative functioning , which gets halted and affects the economy due to low government expenditure, during election when model code of conduct gets imposed.
3) The evils of casteism, communalism , corruption etc. will not be evoked every time when election held, due to simultaneous elections.
4) Time for election will be reduced which will facilitate the people who have restrictions during election, and they can concentrate on other works .
But if we see at the current scenario, there is no political consensus on this issue. Critics of this idea says that the idea of "ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION" is not practical for Indian type of political system , and yes there argument is legitimate in this scenario.
The political structure of India is based on Parliamentary form of government where the Executives are responsible to the lower house of parliament (Lok Sabha) , and if we implement the idea of simultaneous elections and ,if a government will fall either in states or at center, then the whole process of law-making with governance will be halted which will affect us.
And if we still want to have simultaneous elections with existing political structure of federalism, then we have to make amendments in the following articles :-
Art-83 (tenure of lower house of parliament)
Art-85 (dissolution of parliament)
Art-173 (tenure of state legislative assembly)
Art-356 (president's rule)
Representation of people's act,1951
And for that , political consensus is needed.
Otherwise, we have to shift to presidential form of government where the Executives are not responsible to the lower house of parliament , in that case functioning of lawmaking will be still continued if government is not there. But this possibility seems illegitimate and impossible as for that we have to amend the basic structure of our constitution which is not an option with us.
IN MY VIEW , the idea of simultaneous election has a good motive , but it is not practical at the current point of time. So, instead of just looking for a political consensus and waiting for it , we have to look for an alternative by reforming the loopholes in our electioneering process , which may not have the same effect as simultaneous elections but will facilitate us.
1) We have to set a expenditure bracket for the political parties so that they will not use extra money out of that . Also setting that bracket based on the performance of political parties in the polls is an option worth considering. This will reduce the cases of political funding by private firms to political parties. And most importantly, we have to make these parties more accountable for that inclusion of political parties under RTI is also an option.
2) Decreasing the no. of phases in which election held and the no. of days will help the respective government to focus more on the developmental work instead of having in election mode for a longer period of time.
Election is a very important process in a Democracy , and for India which is the largest Democracy in the whole world , it becomes important to have political reforms to have more responsible government with more transparency in electioneering process and at the same time having less expenditure in our elections .
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