One more step to totalitarianism
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The world will be little surprised, however strange the policies the Narendra Modi-led central government puts forward may be. For the past ten and a half years, Modi and his team have been engaged in a ceaseless effort to rid the country of its great democratic traditions, secular values, egalitarian mores, and non-alignment policy, bringing it under the feet of Hindutva totalitarianism. The 'One Nation, One Election' scheme approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday is just one of the many steps towards that goal.
The BJP had declared in its 2019 general election manifesto that it would implement a plan to hold the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections simultaneously. A committee under the leadership of former President Ram Nath Kovind was appointed to formulate the policy during the previous administration. In a country with such diversity and streams of political thought, when there is an intention to change the general election process in any way, it is basic etiquette that people from all levels should be represented in the process. The committee included Amit Shah, Arjun Ram Meghwal, the BJP government's favourite lawyer Harish Salve, and the defector from Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad. The only outsider from the government camp was then-Lok Sabha Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, and with his resignation, the panel became a purely one-sided body, just as the Modi camp desired.
Even then, no one had doubted that an administration that had shown no interest in heeding opposition voices hitherto would produce a report suited to their intention of implementing their manifesto promise. The mere fact that 15 parties, including those ruling various states, have expressed opposition should have been enough to scrap the report without further thought. The committee even goes to the extent of recommending holding elections together without the permission of the state governments.
It cannot be forgotten that the Constitution has given the states of the Indian Union considerable importance and powers. And it was by honouring this, and by allocating the entitlements of states, that prime ministers up to Dr Manmohan Singh led the union governments. There is no doubt that Narendra Modi and his cohorts, who are particularly eager to encroach on the rights of the states and have a discriminatory approach towards them, including on issues such as tax collection, law and order, education, etc., are moving in such a way as to grab all the powers for themselves. By implication, there is no doubt either that by upholding the report of the Ram Nath Kovind committee, the Centre will render the position of states irrelevant.
To support its case, the government is highlighting economic gains and practical benefits. The proposal is not easy to implement. It will be no small feat to set up 60 lakh voting machines and provide security for the exercise. In the last general election, the country witnessed a series of fake votes that were recorded and circulated on video. In this year's elections, which were phased in such a way as to facilitate the Prime Minister's tour, even the harshness of the weather in various states was not taken into account. More than 10 polling officials died due to heatstroke.
In such a situation, if an election jamboree is held for the state legislatures of this great country, it is impossible even to imagine the possible mishaps. There won't be any transparency either. But these are not concerns that bother the establishment, which, in its spree, thrashes everything in its path, driven by slogans of one country, one religion, one language, and one party.
The Sangh Parivar government must be deluded if it believes it can create a propaganda frenzy across the country by pitting an adverse and disfavoured community as the 'other,' stirring up religious sentiments, and from the resulting mire of hate, let the lotus blossom. Even in places where regional issues arise in the states and need to be evaluated, the government seems to believe it can blind the people by invoking nationalism. The government is pressing to implement the simultaneous poll project in the 2029 general election, after the completion of the current government's term. But it needs to be recognised that the concept of one nation, one election damages is the very idea of India. Opposition parties should resist this move to subvert Indian democracy at its very inception.