CHANDIGARH- Punjab Congress leaders today put up a strong case against the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ during a meeting with the members of the committee set up by the government for this purpose.
A delegation of party leaders consisting of PCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa and PCC general secretary organization, Capt Sandeep Sandhu presented the party’s case before the committee.
Later briefing reporters, Warring said, the party leaders told the committee that the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ goes against the basic concept of Federalism that has been guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Besides, he added, it also goes against the basic structure of the constitution.
He pointed out, parliamentary and assembly elections are held on entirely different issues. “The idea of imposing simultaneous elections to the parliament and the state assemblies will mean imposing dictatorship by default”, he remarked.
The regional and local issues which get prominence during the assembly elections will be ignored and crushed, he said, adding, the regional and local aspirations will get muzzled down.
He said, different reasons cited in favour of ‘One Nation One Election’ are also baseless. Quoting an example, he said, the argument that imposition of Model Code of Conduct hurts welfare schemes or development works is also baseless.
He pointed out, the pre-existing schemes and projects continue during elections and in any case, the Election Commission can always approve any disbursements of pre-existing schemes.
One thing about synchronizing the various states and the parliamentary election will require either cutting short the terms of various state assemblies or prolonging some others, he noted, adding, it suggests that to meet the objectives of simultaneous elections, tenures of some state assemblies including Tamil Nadu and Kerala be curtailed by more than 2 years, and tenure of state assemblies like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand be extended by more than 2 years.
He said, the Constitution nowhere authorises the Union Government to dissolve the state assemblies or to suspend the state Governments, except under the emergency clauses.
The holding of simultaneous elections would require the dissolution of several legislative assemblies which are still halfway (or less) through their terms. This would be a betrayal of the electorate in those states, he added.
Warring reiterating the party stand, pointed out, Chief Minister or Prime Minister holds office as long as he or she enjoys the confidence of the house. “If a Chief Minister loses the confidence of the house and no other party is able to form the government the current proposal suggests that the state should be put under President's Rule until the fresh elections can be synchronized?” he asked, while remarking, this would be a travesty of democracy.
“There is no place for the concept of simultaneous elections in a country that has adopted a parliamentary system of government”, he said, adding, such forms of simultaneous elections that are being floated by the government go against the guarantees of federalism contained in the Constitution.