Politics

One Nation, One Election | Lok Sabha Elections 2019

by Shruti-Gupta
May 22, 2019 18:30

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One Nation , One Election | Lok Sabha Election 2019

In India almost every month one or the other state is setting tones for an elections. After One Nation, One Tax, PM Modi is all set to bring a new ambitious reform called “One Nation, One Election” i.e. Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections to be held together. The current election system followed in India is very chaotic, time consuming, costly, and even hampers the functioning of policy making and growth of India. A debate has already been started about this reform as officials like Former President Pranab Mukherjee has supported this concept and simultaneously as per the experts this concept won’t be really workable in a country so vast like India.

The advantages that we could have by this concept are :-

Cost Saving – The election process is not only tedious and hectic, but also hectic. Each party spends so much money in every election. Through this concept we might be able to save a lot of money which could be later used in other schemes.

Time Saving – Half of the year is spent by the parties to focus on the next elections of one or other state. A lot of time is wasted on designing strategies, planning actions, and the blame game, all this time could rather be used for productive work.

Vote Bank appeasement – With elections around the corner, most of the parties start working for the win in elections by formulating only those policies which could be an advantage for the vote bank like the road construction. The common people are now tired of this kind of appeasement.

Hampers Policy Formulation – Due to the fear of losing voters politicians have ignored the passage of long term useful policies and have been promoting policies which give immediate dividends. Policy makers are only concerned about the elections and as a result the policies are focused on vote gaining instead of the welfare of the people.

Reducing Vices – Casteism, communalism, corruption and bias are very commonly seen in elections. This will stop only when the elections are held in common and the odds of winning or once and for all to lose prevail. The remaining duration of his/her career he/she would not be trying to stir up the evil that is destroying the peace of the nation.

The challenges that we might have to face on the way of it’s implementation are :-

Not possible – Lok Sabha elections along with election to assembly and panchayat is not as easy as it looks. There could be many problems like shortage of administrative staff, equipment, logistics, security and also less care at the voting centers may further incite trouble and corrupt processes like booth capturing or rigging.

Politicians may become complacent – Politicians are kept on their toes when they are regularly worried about the routine elections where they will be accountable. The fear of losing the election due to some mistake keeps them under control. Reducing the number of elections might make them lazy in the rest of the year and hyperactive in the election year.

National and State issues – When both the elections are clubbed, national issues may dominate over state issues and dictate the mood of both state and national votes. State or local issues might take a backseat which could be crucial too.

Constitutional Amendments – To pass these amendments they require special majorities in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. This could be a challenging task for the government to build consensus among various political outfits which have certain biases.