CHANDIGARH: The AAP-led Punjab government, Punjab Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal registered their strong objections to the ‘One Nation One Election’ proposal tabled by the BJP-led central government during a meeting with members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Saturday.
After attending a meeting convened by the Joint Parliamentary Committee under the chairmanship of PP Choudhary, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema described it as a direct assault on the fundamental structure and spirit of the Constitution of India as framed by Babasaheb Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Cheema said that he, along with AAP State President Aman Arora, completely rejected the move. "This proposal by the BJP-led Union government is a hidden agenda designed to destroy the federal structure of the nation as enshrined in the Constitution of India, meticulously architected by Baba Saheb Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar," he said.
Referring to the amendments in the proposed Bill, Cheema said that the suggested amendments would effectively render the tenures of state assemblies subject to the discretion of the Union government, an alarming overreach incompatible with the federal framework enshrined in the Constitution. He said that this bill will further encourage the misuse of Article 356 and 360 by the Union government.
As per section 5 of part 2, if the Election Commission is of the opinion that the elections to any Legislative Assembly cannot be conducted along with the general election to the House of the People, it may make a recommendation to the President, to declare by an order, that the election to that Legislative Assembly may be conducted at a later date.
Citing this amendment, Cheema said that the BJP's One Nation One Election concept would ultimately backfire, as it would enable the Union government to conduct state elections at its convenience a year or two after general elections, rather than fulfilling the purpose of the proposal as being publicised.
Calling for a united stand to preserve the federal ethos and institutional autonomy of the states, Cheema emphasized that such unilateral proposals risk destabilizing the balance of power essential to India’s democratic fabric. He said that the One Nation One Election bill proposed by the BJP is a calculated move to eliminate regional parties that represent diverse cultures, languages, and regions, and serve as the backbone of Indian democracy.
Reaffirming the unwavering commitment of the Punjab government and Aam Admi Party to upholding the Constitution, he said that the state government and AAP will also oppose this bill in writing to protect the rights of the states against centralized overreach.
A delegation of Congress leaders consisting of Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa and party general secretary organization, Capt Sandeep Sandhu, also presented the party’s case before the JPC.
Warring said the party leaders told the committee that the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ goes against the basic concept of federalism that has been guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Besides, he added, it also goes against the basic structure of the Constitution.
He pointed out that parliamentary and assembly elections are held on entirely different issues. “The idea of imposing simultaneous elections to the parliament and the state assemblies will mean imposing dictatorship by default,” he remarked.
The regional and local issues which get prominence during the assembly elections will be ignored and crushed, he said.
Warring said the argument that imposition of Model Code of Conduct hurts welfare schemes or development works is baseless. He pointed out that pre-existing schemes and projects continue during elections and in any case, the Election Commission can always approve any disbursements of pre-existing schemes.
Synchronizing the various state elections and the general elections will require either cutting short the terms of various state assemblies or prolonging some others, he noted. This suggests that to meet the objectives of simultaneous elections, tenures of some state assemblies including Tamil Nadu and Kerala would be curtailed by more than two years, and tenure of state assemblies like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand would be extended by more than two years, he added.
He said the Constitution nowhere authorizes the Union government to dissolve the state assemblies or to suspend the state governments, except under the emergency clauses.
The holding of simultaneous elections would require the dissolution of several legislative assemblies which are still halfway (or less) through their terms. This would be a betrayal of the electorate in those states, he added.
Warring said the Chief Minister or Prime Minister holds office as long as he or she enjoys the confidence of the house. “If a Chief Minister loses the confidence of the house and no other party is able to form the government the current proposal suggests that the state should be put under President's Rule until the fresh elections can be synchronized?” he asked, adding that this would be a travesty of democracy.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) urged the committee to recommend dissolution of Article 356, which it said was the root cause for disruption of simultaneous elections in the country.
The SAD delegation, led by Dr Daljit Singh Cheema and Balwinder Singh Bhundar, briefed the JPC that in case Article 356 was not done away with the election schedule would be disrupted again.
The delegation also opposed the insertion of Article 82 A Clause 5 which empowered the ECI to defer elections of legislative assemblies. “This can be misused against opposition parties anytime”, it asserted.
Cheema and Bhundar also demanded a solution to constant byelections. They said the byelections were turning out to be the root cause of election malpractices.