After the terrible experiment with demonetisation, the BJP government at the Centre is now mulling the new idea of one nation, one election (ONOE) formula. The sales pitch for synchronised elections is that it will improve governance, accelerate development, raise GDP growth, lower inflation and shrink deficits. While implementing demonetisation, the government claimed that it was going to end black money and terrorism. But it never happened. The attempt to hurry up one nation, one election is detrimental to the country’s democracy. In a mature democracy, consensus-building should be the preferred way to implement reforms in any sector. However, the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has thrown this principle to the wind by trying to bulldoze its way in Parliament on the idea of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and assemblies.
The opposition has forced the government to form a joint parliamentary committee. The first meeting of the parliamentary panel on ONOE is set to take place on 8 January. The Parliament passed the motion on forming the panel, which will have 39 members, to ensure representation of maximum states, and the joint parliamentary committee will be headed by former law minister PP Chaudhary. The Congress and several other opposition parties fear that this initiative poses a threat to India’s federal structure. If indeed government is serious reforming election there are so many areas. There are many things about Indian elections that need urgent reform: opaque funding, the tendency to hand disproportionate victories to winners, and legislators who sometimes get elected with only a quarter of the vote. All of these are distortions in the translation of the popular will into election outcomes.