One nation One Election
The current central government has prepared the draft of One Country One Election. The central government is in favor of conducting simultaneous elections in the entire country. The cabinet has approved this draft. A high level committee was formed for this, whose chairman was former President Shri Ram Nath Kovind. The members of the committee are Ram Nath Kovind, chairman NK Singh, former Finance Commission chairman Dr. Subhash Kashyap, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Harish Salve, Sanjay Kothari.
The One Country One Election Committee has suggested that now elections in the country will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections will be held, while in the second phase, local body elections will be conducted within 100 days. As per the recommendations of the committee, if any assembly is dissolved for any reason before 5 years, then the next elections will be conducted only for the remaining days.
If elections are held in any state assembly before 2019, then the term of the special assembly will be fixed till 2019 only. If this law is passed, then the picture of elections in the country will change completely.
Let me tell you here that this is not happening for the first time in the country. Even before this, for the first time in the country, Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections were held simultaneously in 1951-52. This process continued till 1967. After 1967, this process could not continue. Due to some reason, Vidhan Sabha started getting dissolved on time and this tradition was broken.
And then simultaneous elections can be held anytime. In 1883, the Indian Election Commission had once suggested to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to hold simultaneous elections, but Indira Government rejected it. In 1999, the Law Commission recommended in its report that if simultaneous elections are held in the country, more development work will be done in the country.
Arguments in favour of one country one election
Repeated elections lead to a waste of time. Once elections are held, time will be saved. Repeated elections cost more. This will also save money. Elections are held somewhere in the year, during which code of conduct is imposed. No work can be done for one to two months. This will also help in getting rid of it. Money soldiers are deployed repeatedly in elections, due to which a lot of difficulties have to be faced. When elections are held in different states, there is a lot of pressure on political parties to win the elections, due to which they try to give a new turn to local issues.
Arguments against one country one election
1. Those who oppose it believe that the basic structure of this law will be violated.
2. This is contrary to the democratic federal structure. Regional parties will become weak.
3. The dominance of national parties will increase.
4. People believe that this system will lead to President’s rule.
5. Big political parties will benefit more because they have more money and purchase power, while small parties have less money and dominance, due to which they will suffer.
7. Local problems will be solved. There will be neglect
8. The importance of media and social media will increase due to which there will be a greater risk of spreading false rumours.
Challenges before One Country One Election
1. Indian regional issues will be neglected.
2. National issues will dominate.
3. National parties will get more benefits.
4. If One Country One Election law is implemented then many amendments will have to be made in the constitution.
5. Conducting simultaneous elections will require more administrative structure in the entire country.