BENGALURU: PP Chaudhary, chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the Bill on simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, said on Monday that the will of the people is greater than that of political parties in bringing in massive electoral reforms in the country.
He along with other JPC members held consultations with the CM, DCM, Speaker of the Assembly, Chairman of the Council, elected representatives, heads of political parties, officials from the state administration, financial and educational institutions, professional bodies and representatives of civil society on the Bill. The JPC ended its exercise with an interaction with Padma Shri awardees, including HR Nagendra, Vijayalakshmi Deshmane, Jayalakshmi, and Ricky Kej, among others, who favoured the Bill.
“As of today, we consider the ‘will of the people’ to be at a higher level in a democracy than that of political parties. If we look at the real stakeholders who will benefit the most from ‘One Nation, One Election’, it is the common voter, the general public and the citizens of the country,” he said when his attention was drawn to the Congress government in the state passing a resolution against the Bill, at an interaction with reporters here.
“Political parties may have certain interests or issues, and they can voice them. But those who truly think about the national interests are the country’s voters and its citizens,” he said, adding that “democracy, in its true sense, is the will of the people”.
Chaudhary reiterated that the high-level committee led by former president Ram Nath Kovind submitted a report stating that if separate elections are held, the country will suffer a loss of Rs 7 lakh crore. However, if simultaneous elections are held, Rs 7 lakh crore will go to the country’s treasury.
That money can be directly used for the welfare of the poor, he said. “We consider that (the financial savings) to be less significant; you shouldn’t look at it solely in economic terms, look at the governance. While the direct implication might be an economic aspect-like a loss of 1% or 5% of the GDP-beyond that, the major indirect impact is on governance,” he said.
He said six former chief justices of India told the committee that there is no violation of any kind regarding the federal structure, basic structure, or fundamental rights. They favoured ‘One Nation, One Election’. “After that, three Supreme Court judges and three former high court judges shared their views. We also heard economist Gita Gopinath, Arvind Panagariya, the Attorney General of India, and senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi,” he added.
Chaudhary said the committee will make every effort to build a consensus on the Bill before presenting its report.
President’s rule
“No, there is no provision for President’s rule (in this context)... The Bill is silent on this; the Bill states that the committee will decide. What the government said was this is a larger issue, we can’t discuss and decide here, it has to be decided politically. A government belongs to one party, and the government considered it proper that this should be left to the committee... to determine what the cutoff date should be. So, the government was not inclined to mandate a cutoff date; it left it to the committee and all political parties to decide it politically,” he said.