Kolkata:
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday hit out at the controversial ‘one nation, one election’ idea, labelling it “a design to subvert the basic structure of the Constitution” and create a system to allow “autocracy (in) a democratic garb to enter the national public arena”. “I am against autocracy and, hence, am against your design,” Ms Banerjee said.
in a detailed letter to Dr Niten Chandra, the Secretary of a high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind – that has called for suggestions for implementation of the ‘one nation, one election’ idea, the Trinamool leader said she had “basic conceptual difficulties with the principle”, as also “difficulties with your methodological approach”.
The two conceptual issues she raised were “the constitutional and structural implication of the term ‘one nation'” and, crucially, questions over the timing of parliamentary and Assembly elections, particularly when there is a significant gap in existing poll cycles.
“In 1952, the first general election was simultaneously conducted for the centre as well as states. There was such simultaneity for some years but (this) has since been ruptured.”
“… different states have different elections calendars now and those are also susceptible to changes due to political developments. States which are not expecting elections should not be forced to hold (them) for the sake of introduction of coevality only,” she stressed.
Ms Banerjee also pointed out potential ruptures in the ‘one nation, one election’ idea if either the Lok Sabha or a state Assembly “is subject to untimely dissolution”, and warned, “Instability of a government at the centre should not destabilise state legislatures…”
“It is not clear how this basic issue of introduction of coevality is going to be addressed by your esteemed committee,” Ms Banerjee wrote.
