The ‘one nation one election’ proposal mooted yet again by the Narendra Modi government is deeply flawed. The reasons for the proposal are fallacious. The idea is unimplementable. It is nothing but a ‘distraction’ balloon floated to tide over the negative headlines about the Prime Minister’s cronyism and the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s snub to the G-20 summit.
The government argues that India is in a ‘permanent campaign’, to borrow the words of the American political commentator Sidney Blumenthal. India has had either a State or a national election every year for the last 36 years. This devours enormous financial resources and efforts, and the time of the government and political parties is the seeming concern. An election held constantly in some part of the country with a ‘model code of conduct’ distracts from governance and leads to policy paralysis. This is the essence of the opening argument in the notification issued a few days ago to constitute a panel to study a ‘one nation one election’.
