Double-Engine Government Against Democracy

Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi addressed concerns relating to the One Nation One Election proposal from the perspective of election administration. He noted that the principal arguments advanced in favour of simultaneous elections usually concerned cost, administrative paralysis, and the burden imposed on electoral machinery. He disputed each of these propositions. On cost, he distinguished between the Election Commission’s management expenses and the far larger sums spent by political parties, suggesting that the issue was often presented in an incomplete or misleading manner. On administrative paralysis, he said that ordinary government functioning does not in fact come to a halt because of the Model Code of Conduct (which he encouraged everyone to read). He also pointed out that a substantial number of Lok Sabhas had been dissolved prematurely, and asked why such developments at the Union level should dictate the electoral timetable of the states. He said that, unusually for the present government, there had been a gesture towards deliberation on this issue; but in his view, once deliberation occurred, the idea ought to have been abandoned. Instead, he suggested, the deliberative process associated with the proposal (under the aegis of the Kovind Committee) had been structured in a way that did not permit any genuine reconsideration.