00:00A government-formed committee on looking at holding simultaneous polls to state legislatures
00:09and the Lok Sabha is nearly ready with its report.
00:12And law ministry officials have been telling journalists in the last few days that more
00:15than 80 per cent of the responses that they have received on the proposal are overwhelmingly
00:20in favour of a one-nation, one-election.
00:22The problem, however, lies with the credibility of the process and the credibility of the
00:27panel itself.
00:28The panel is headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, who has publicly expressed support
00:32for simultaneous polls in the past.
00:34In fact, every member of this eight-member panel has either expressed support for one-nation,
00:39one-election publicly or is seen to be close to the BJP.
00:43There was only one opposition voice that was included in this panel originally.
00:47That was the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Congress's Adhirajan Chaudhary.
00:52But he dropped out and refused to be part of the proceedings, saying that the entire
00:55exercise was an eyewash.
00:57Actually, that doesn't seem to have been a very good idea.
01:01Because at the end of the day, this is an important issue.
01:03And even if the Congress was the sole opposition voice there, it was important for them to
01:08record their opposition in black and white in front of the official committee.
01:12But that aside, the process too has been marred with controversy.
01:16If you look at the terms of reference of the committee, it's quite clear from the very
01:20beginning that they have made up their minds about which way their report is going to go
01:24and what it is going to suggest.
01:27And there really hasn't been any meaningful consultation with regional parties and others
01:33to have a robust debate on this.
01:35Because if India does go in for simultaneous polls, it will have a huge impact on the way
01:41electoral democracy is conducted in the country.
01:45Regional parties in particular are going to lose out.
01:47They stand to have the biggest disadvantage as a result of this.
01:51And it is a national party like the BJP that stands to gain the most from it.
01:55An exercise like this required an honest and meaningful debate and discussion to take
02:01place, not the kind of process that we are seeing now.
Comments