POLITICS
Modi govt wants India to slowly turn into dictatorship — Kharge on ‘One Nation, One Election’ push
- Admin
- Sep 04, 2023
Modi govt wants India to slowly turn into dictatorship — Kharge on ‘One Nation, One Election’ push
Day after lone Congress member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury declines to join panel on simultaneous polls, Kharge attacks Modi govt over move, says it wants to turn India into 'dictatorship'.
: A day after the lone Congress member on the ‘One Nation, One Election’ committee, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, declined to join the 8 member party chief Mallikarjun Kharge characterised the move as “a subterfuge for dismantling the federal structure of India”.
Taking to social media platform X Sunday, Kharge alleged that the Modi government wants “democratic India” to slowly turn into a “dictatorship”, adding that the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ has been examined and rejected by three committees in the past.
Even as the Congress questioned the exclusion of Kharge from the committee in his capacity as the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the party president emphasised that the proposed reform would require multiple constitutional amendments and a “massive” change in the Representation of the People Act, 19151.
“The Constitutional amendments shall be required to truncate the terms of the elected Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies, as also at the level of local bodies, so that they can be synchronised,” he wrote.
To the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) argument that simultaneous polls, as suggested by the ‘One Nation, One Election’ theory, would save money, Kharge said, “The fact that the cost incurred by Election Commission in conducting all elections between 2014-19 (including Lok Sabha 2019) is around ₹5,500 crore, which is only a fraction of government’s budget expenditure, makes the cost saving logic like penny wise, pound foolish.”
PM Modi himself has earlier argued that implementation of the model code of conduct (MCC) at different times hampers development work. In response, Kharge said that the MCC can be changed either by “shortening the length of the moratorium or by relaxing the kinds of developmental activities permitted during the election season”.
To those claiming that simultaneous elections were held until 1967 and thus, shouldn’t be an issue now, Kharge said, “Till 1967, we neither had so many states nor did we have 30.45 lakh elected representatives in our panchayats,” adding, “India is the world’s largest democracy. We have lakhs of elected representatives, and their future cannot be determined at one go, now.”
The Rajya Sabha MP also attacked the ruling BJP for allegedly forcing multiple by-elections in the last nine years. “The BJP has a habit of overthrowing elected governments by disregarding the mandate of the people…This inherent greed for power in the BJP has already vitiated our politics and has rendered the anti-defection law, toothless.”
Kharge added, “For 2024, people of India only have ONE NATION, ONE SOLUTION — To get rid of BJP misrule.”
“Drastic actions like ‘One Nation, One Election’ would sabotage our democracy, Constitution and evolved-time-tested procedures. What can be accomplished by simple electoral reforms would prove to be a disaster, like other disruptive ideas of PM Modi,”
Even as the Congress questioned the exclusion of Kharge from the committee in his capacity as the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the party president emphasised that the proposed reform would require multiple constitutional amendments and a “massive” change in the Representation of the People Act, 19151.
“The Constitutional amendments shall be required to truncate the terms of the elected Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies, as also at the level of local bodies, so that they can be synchronised,” he wrote.
To the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) argument that simultaneous polls, as suggested by the ‘One Nation, One Election’ theory, would save money, Kharge said, “The fact that the cost incurred by Election Commission in conducting all elections between 2014-19 (including Lok Sabha 2019) is around ₹5,500 crore, which is only a fraction of government’s budget expenditure, makes the cost saving logic like penny wise, pound foolish.”
PM Modi himself has earlier argued that implementation of the model code of conduct (MCC) at different times hampers development work. In response, Kharge said that the MCC can be changed either by “shortening the length of the moratorium or by relaxing the kinds of developmental activities permitted during the election season”.
To those claiming that simultaneous elections were held until 1967 and thus, shouldn’t be an issue now, Kharge said, “Till 1967, we neither had so many states nor did we have 30.45 lakh elected representatives in our panchayats,” adding, “India is the world’s largest democracy. We have lakhs of elected representatives, and their future cannot be determined at one go, now.”
The Rajya Sabha MP also attacked the ruling BJP for allegedly forcing multiple by-elections in the last nine years. “The BJP has a habit of overthrowing elected governments by disregarding the mandate of the people…This inherent greed for power in the BJP has already vitiated our politics and has rendered the anti-defection law, toothless.”
Kharge added, “For 2024, people of India only have ONE NATION, ONE SOLUTION — To get rid of BJP misrule.”
“Drastic actions like ‘One Nation, One Election’ would sabotage our democracy, Constitution and evolved-time-tested procedures. What can be accomplished by simple electoral reforms would prove to be a disaster, like other disruptive ideas of PM Modi,”
