Unpacking The Conundrum - Challenges And Considerations Of One Nation, One Election
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Category: General Law
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UNPACKING THE CONUNDRUM: CHALLENGES AND
CONSIDERATIONS OF ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION
Neha Saroha, Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur I.
THE CONTEXT
Elections lie at the fulcrum of democracies, duly fuelled by consent and representation. However, as simple as it seems, manifold is the complexity involved and thus, the unrequited consequences. To elaborate a bit, electoral systems in themselves have been an unsolved riddle for years together- multiple electoral systems are possible, these multiple systems can culminate in different political systems and various levels of civil liberties or vice-versa, and yet no concrete relation can be established between these. 1 The following table enumerates data from 1997, as collated by the Administration and Cost of Elections Project, which shows the global distribution of electoral systems. Obvious here is the non-unanimity on the kind of electoral system employed, even if segregated on the basis of political values- Turning to modern democracies, they use multiple electoral systems.
However, these systems too unfold in ways more than one and the results are democratic centralism (Mao
1 DEMOCRACY AND ELECTIONS 17 (Vernon Bogdanor & David Butler, Cambridge University Press 1983)
Zedong), political democracy (Fidel Castro), democratic collectivism (Jawaharlal Nehru), proletarian democracy (Vladimir Lenin) and this list goes on, on loop. 2 In this context, ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION is an idea worth brain-storming. It is a territory unexplored and can be tagged as a sub-structural policy, possible under any electoral system. Seen, in context of India, its impact on us, as a democracy, is uncertain. In this essay, I will delve deeper into ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION as an idea, in terms of its
implementation and future ramifications. II.
THE CONCEPT OF ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION AND THE RECENT
DEVELOPMENTS
ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION is when the general elections (to Lok Sabha) and state elections (to State Legislative Assemblies) are conducted in continual temporality, instead of being organised periodically and disparately. To cite a formal definition, NITI Aayog succinctly explained it in its Working Paper in 2017, where it defined ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION as “the structuring the Indian election cycle in a manner that elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies are synchronized together in cohesion. ”3 However, elections to Panchayats and State Municipalities and also, the bye-elections are kept out of the sphere of ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION.
But this is not a novel thing to Indian democracy. Such elections were conducted from
1951 to 1967- four times. However, they had to be discontinued due to early dissolution of Lok
Sabha in 1970. Further, this was accentuated by state reorganisations that were underway during those times. This idea was pushed during the 1999-BJP rule, could not culminate into something concrete and was again thrown into public parlance for discussions by PM Modi-through his
2014 manifesto, 2019 polls and in his recent speeches. Though no political consensus exists on
this issue, this idea has been under deliberations by the Election Commission of India, the Standing Committee of Parliament, the Law Commission and undisputedly, the other State and non-State actors.
2 2 PETER EMERSON, DEFINING DEMOCRACY 11 (2011).
3 ONE NATION ONE ELECTION | Department of Legal Affairs, MoL &J, GoI, https://legalaffairs.gov.in/onenation-one-election (last visited Feb 5, 2024).
III.
POLICY ANALYSIS
ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION is an unimplemented policy in India and hence, a prospective analysis of the policy has to be done. In this regard, the things to be deliberated upon are:why the Government should do it, how the Government should do it and most importantly, why the Government should do it. 4 With this background, an analysis follows-
THE PROBLEM WITH CURRENT SYSTEM OF ELECTIONS (THAT ONE NATION,
ONE ELECTION SEEKS TO REMEDY):
At this stage of policy initiation, various actors would compete for and, against the agenda of ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION. The policy movers will question the current system of non-simultaneous elections as being problematic on several grounds and will present the new regime of ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION as the remedy. The pitches they can possibly make, follow. The more the incidences of elections, the more the money is invested into efficient functioning of the electoral machinery- which includes the multi-pronged pre, during and post preparations, made by the Election Commission to put everything in place. This claims a huge bulk of financial resources, that could have been put to some more efficient use-enhancing public welfare. For not so frequent startling of all sectors of the economy- economic and noneconomic, ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION is pretty much desirable.
Also, the problem of “political corruption” can be slightly reduced in this way. And the business communities and pressure groups would be absolved from frequent donations, allowing a better investment in the economy. Additionally, it can be reasonably anticipated to improve governance efficiency and remedy “policy paralysis”, as the administrative and developmental activities will no longer be brought to halt due to its officials being roped in for election duties or due to the imposition of Model Code of Consuct for elections. Investment decisions byprivate sector will also not
4 THOMAS R. DYE, UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC POLICY 15 (2008).
have to be slowed down(as expressed by CII in its submission before the ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION committee). It is further supported by the fact of ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION being a global practice.
THE ISSUES THAT WOULD BE ENCOUNTERED AT THE STAGE OF POLICY
FORMULATION:
This stage, in my opinion, would be one of the most difficult one. At this stage, brainstorming would be done by the executive, legislature, government departments, political parties and non-state actors like interest groups, to come up with a policy. A very pertinent question at this stage would be on how to manage the remaining terms
left of different State Governments? Should it be arbitrarily brought to an end? But, India is a democracy and hence, a solution that caters to all the State governments would have to be gone forward with. In this respect, the Law Commission’s bi-phasal election mode recommendation can do wonders: It proposes a bi-election model, instead of one election being held every five years. It proposes elections for State Assemblies that would go for election in 2023 and 2025 to be held in 2024 and, for the ones that are to have their elections in 2026 and 2028, conducting the elections in 2027 would be a fair choice. But, here as well, making the State Governments to agree upon this policy is too difficult a task-which State Government would like to reduce its term? Especially so in the cases where such political party that beheads the State Government is not a major political party.
Also, provisions for various contingencies that could crop up later, have to be made. For example, the cases where the Lower House would be dissolved before its term of five years or if a State legislature could not complete its vote, how would this policy continue? In this regard the option of setting up a Caretaker Government for the time being till the next simultaneous elections are scheduled exists can be afforded. But again, if this Government is democratically elected, the cost efficiency argument for bringing in ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION would fail and also, the fact of why should a democratically elected Government
be made to govern for a period which is less than the constitutional mandate of 5 years, demands an answer. In case, we choose to have a coalition of all parties as the caretaker Government during this period, the stakeholders would be too many to handle. Who would make judgements as to the justifiability of claim made by every political party? The answer is a swampy one. Even putting President’s rule in such a situation would be like handing over the strings to the Central Government and thus, a unitary form of democracy. What if the Assemblies in most States undergo dissolution prior to the ascribed time for elections? In such a case, federalismone of the core values of Indian Constitution would be on deathbed. And vote of constructive no-confidence, as proposed by the Law Commission in its 2018 Report is a strike on democratic procedures and hence, would not work in India.
Even if implemented, a series of cases would follow in the Courts.
THE ISSUES THAT WOULD BE SEEN STANDING IN WAY OF POLICY ADOPTION:
The policy of ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION, will find it hard to enjoy unison of majority political parties and even State Governments, thus, creating issues in policy adoption. They will probably contend against ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION on grounds such as the ones described below. An average of Rs. 100 was spent per voter in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Here, the point to be noted is that even if this amount doubles to Rs. 200 per voter in State polls-it is a fairly reasonable amount for a country as large in size and population as India. 5Other supporting facts exist for not so high State Election Expenditures as well and no contradicting data exists, as per my research. Also, the point to be noted here is that no data on costs incurred in simultaneous elections exist so far, thereby assuming reduced administrative cost is just an assumption.
Even if it reduces, no conclusion can be reached at before getting down to the analysis of other factors.
5 Ashok Lavasa, Former Election Commissioner writes: ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION – wrong problem,
bad solution, THE INDIAN EXPRESS (September 28, 2023), https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/former-election-commissioner-writes-one-nation-oneelection-wrong-problem-bad-solution-8959197/ (Last visited on Feb. 6, 2024).
Also, the issue of continuous deployment and redeployment of security forces is indeed a problem when talking of staggered elections. But even ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION will stretch the resources and capabilities of the security forces and the other administrative apparatus. This will give rise to maybe, another issue of shortage of security forces and other people who constitute the electoral machinery. Added to that is the cost of buying more EVM and VVPAT machines by the Election Commissioner, to conduct simultaneous elections in a smooth manner-which will increase election expenditure. And seen the 15 year life-span of EVMs, staggered elections are a better choice. The point of policy paralysis during election days too falls flat in face of the fact that MCC prevents just the policies that are meant to reap political benefits and not all.
If most or all of the above contentions find favour among the political class, the Constitutional Amendments in Articles 83(duration of Houses of Parliament), 85(dissolution of Lok Sabha by the President), 172(duration of state legislatures), 174(dissolution of state legislatures), and 356(imposition of President’s rule in states), which require a special majority in the Parliament further problems would arise. Over and above these amendments, ratification by 50% states would be needed. Representation of the People Act, 1951 and the Rules of Procedures of Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies also would need amendments but would be difficult to be pulled through. Based on whether the policy actor would be able to pitch its needs and demands for ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION to the legislators and the executive class, this policy would enter into the next stage i. e.
policy implementation.
THE HURDLES THAT CAN COME IN THE WAY OF POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
Ideally speaking, at this stage, various constraints would crop up, because a well-framed policy can become counter-productive at times. Also, the number of actors involved in this stage are a huge bulk and thus, they possibly would pose the following hurdles: (i) Judiciary: It would deal with a lot of litigations, centring around the amendments made in the Constitution, on ground of them violating the federal structure and probably, the basic structure of the Constitution.
(ii) The local Governments: They will be the major initiators of the litigations and would contend overshadowing of the local issues and institutions under the garb of ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION, alongwith questioning the breach of federal structure of Indian Constitution. (iii) NGOs: They are very likely to undertake the litigations based upon the fact of decreasing democratic nature of the Indian State. It could start even a democracy versus centrism debate. (iv) The citizens: They would probably follow the idea of whichever actor appeals to them the most. To be specific, whoever would strike when the iron is hot, would be able to influence these actors.
(v) The political parties who are not satisfied by the number of seats they enjoy at the time when ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION would be implemented: They would be the ones filing litigations against ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION on grounds of the executive eroding the constitutional mandate of democratism. “Abandonment” of this system of election by the public can be one extreme step that this class of actors might produce, which would ofcourse impact other actors as well.
POLICY EVALUATION:
At this stage, an assessment of the agendas that ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION achieved(versus the agendas it initially sought to achieve), would be made. And policy correction and supplementation- maintenance, succession, and termination would be decided. At this stage, ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION can be analysed on the following grounds: 1) Marginalisation of local issues has to be evaluated. The impact on local Government’s operation and authority in political and fiscal terms(as to how strongly they can push their demands through in the new system)has to be checked and in case, a decreased authority of them is seen, ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION needs re-examination. 2) Impact on accountability of the higher levels of the Government(the Central and the State Government)has to be analysed through the data pertaining to breach of civil liberties, the occurences of protests, strikes, etc.
would prove helpful in this regard.
Results that show an increased index of these should ideally lead to reformulation or even discarding of this policy and replacing it with a better one. 3) Centralisation of power in few hands, especially in the major political parties, who would want to go for elections based upon the charisma of a single charismatic leader, if there, would need to be checked by bringing in a new policy. IV.
CONCLUSION: THE WAY FORWARD
ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION, in my view, will cast a significant shadow on how the Indian democracy will evolve many years down the line. So, for making this policy a success, a good proof-check must be done well ahead of time through pilot projects conducted across a few states. Additionally, studies can be done to collect data in this regard and improving this policy, to significantly bring down the chances of failure of this policy. Thus, offering Indian Democracy a new garment.
V.
REFERENCES
Chakravarty, Praveen (2016), Nudging the Voter in One Direction?, HINDU, (May 5, 7:30 pm), http://www. thehindu. com/opinion/op-ed/state-assembly-electionsnudging- thevoter-in-one-direction/article8438114. • Debroy, Bibek and Kishore Desai (2016), Analysis of Simultaneous Election: The ‘What,’ ‘Why, ’ and ‘How’,
NITI
AAYOG, https://legalaffairs. gov. in/sites/default/files/simultaneous_elections/NITI_AYOG_REPORT_2017. pdf, (May 6, 2024, 9:25 pm). • Hindu Bureau, https://www. thehindu. com/news/national/ex-president-kovind-headedcommittee-to-explore-possibility-of-one-nation-one-election/article67258799. ece (May 6, 2024, 9:25 pm). • Scroll, https://scroll.in/latest/1055389/centre-had-listed-obstacles-for-one-nation-oneelection-months-before-forming-panel, (May 6, 2024, 9:25 pm). • Agney G K, Vineeth Thomas, Assessing the Feasibility of ‘One Nation, One Election’ in India, ECONOMICAL AND POLITICAL WEEKLY (May 5, 2024, 7:30 pm), https://www.epw.in/journal/2023/45-46/commentary/assessing-feasibility- %E2%80%98one-nation-one-election%E2%80%99.html.