Before One Nation-One Vote, Overhaul The Electoral Process
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2020-11-30 14:43:33
About the Author
Prime Minister Modi once again reiterated his pet theme of one nation, one vote recently. His oft repeated stance that too much time, administrative effort and money is spent in holding a plethora of elections all across the country throughout the year is built on solid logic if one sees it purely from how he puts it. But in a democracy, there are several other issues that need consideration before any major change like holding simultaneous elections to all elected bodies are held across the country.
First of all, it has to be considered how elections to the Lok Sabha are different from elections to the state assemblies and then how the latter are different from elections to municipal corporations, district development councils or gram panchayats. Yes, the point that frequent revision of electoral rolls before every election anywhere is a time-consuming and costly exercise which wastes a lot of time of administrative officer is valid, a different solution, like making the exercise fully online at least in the urban and semi-urban areas to start with and putting the onus entirely on the voter to ensure that his name is on the list before every election with a do-it-yourself solution to errors and omissions, would take care of that.
Secondly, asking the electorate to decide on local, state and national issues at one time is too much. There is truth in what the opposition says: that Narendra Modi is trying to bring in the presidential form of government through the back door. There are many other electoral reforms that need urgent implementation. For instance, instead of promoting the personality cult, why can't we have party-based elections where people vote for a party and the party then decides who will represent which constituency in the assembly or parliament? It will reduce poll expenses, throw out caste calculations and reduce the clout of coteries. As long as we do not have the right to recall a non-performing representative and if the voting is done for the party, the need to hold bypolls will also be done away with as if one sitting representative dies, the party can appoint another in his or her place. That will save a lot of time and money.
These are just some observations. Electoral reform is a vast field and India has not even started reforming the process. Tinkering will not do - we need a complete and major overhaul to rid the system of the many deficiencies that make it a pawn in the hands of those with money and muscle. Hence, we should first start with the low-hanging fruit and then think of something as game-changing as simultaneous elections.
