The approach taken by the apex committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind on One Nation, One Election (ONOE) is both pragmatic and wise. There might not be a consensus yet on the issue of ONOE either politically or socially, but if it is a desired objective, the panel led by former President Kovind, which was submitted to President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday for further action, has the inbuilt mechanisms to attempt to create such a consensus.
The biggest challenge to the idea of one election for the entire nation, eventually, is legal and constitutional, which the report of 18,626 pages is supposed to have covered strongly and recommends amendments in at least five articles of the Constitution to ensure that the legal grounding is sound.
Established last year in September, the committee, which looked at elections at all levels, from the parliamentary to state Assemblies and local bodies as part of its purview, interacted with almost all the stakeholders, besides getting expert opinions as part of its work, before making its recommendations.
One of the biggest pragmatic challenges thrown up by the idea was the issue of ensuring concurrence of the length of the various Houses, in cases of hung Assemblies or Parliament, governments losing majority mid-term, and other collapses. It was met with by the panel by creating a provision for ensuring a “complete the reminder” of the original term approach.
The idea of the panel, if recommended by the next Lok Sabha elections, would in its current shape possibly see the elections happening to Parliament and all state Assemblies. The next step would co-opt the local bodies — within 100 days, covering bodies like municipalities, panchayats and others.
The panel said that the ONOE would enhance “transparency, inclusivity, ease and confidence of voters” and argued that synchronised polls for all the three layers and tiers of government “would improve governance architecture”. The panel also suggested measures to revamp logistics, manpower, security and other arrangements for implementing the idea.
The panel, besides former President Kovind, also had home minister Amit Shah, former minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, retired bureaucrat N.K. Singh, constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap and senior advocate Harish Salve. Sadly, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury declined to be part of the panel’s work.
