Is One Nation, One Election a DISASTER or MIRACLE for India? : Political strategy decoded
Summary
TLDRThe video script discusses the 'One Nation, One Election' concept in India, a proposal to hold simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. It explores the potential benefits, such as overcoming inefficiencies in the model code of conduct, reducing election expenses, and improving national security. However, it also highlights concerns, including the possibility of national issues overshadowing local ones and the risk of reduced political accountability. The script examines the historical context, current debates, and challenges of implementing this policy, urging viewers to form their own opinions.
Takeaways
- 📅 The Indian government is considering a proposal called 'One Nation, One Election', which aims to hold simultaneous elections for both the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.
- 🇮🇳 The proposal is not new; simultaneous elections were held from 1951 until 1967, but political instability disrupted this practice.
- 💼 The government argues that this policy could overcome the inefficiencies caused by the Model Code of Conduct, which currently halts new projects during election periods.
- 💸 Holding elections together could significantly reduce the high costs associated with conducting separate elections at different times.
- 👮♂️ The proposal could improve national security by reducing the need for extensive deployment of security forces for separate elections.
- 🗳 Some studies suggest that simultaneous elections might favor the dominant party, as voters' choices could be influenced by national issues overshadowing local ones.
- ⚖ The policy faces criticism that it could reduce the accountability of politicians, as they would not be under constant electoral pressure to perform well between elections.
- ⏳ Implementing this policy would require significant adjustments to the current terms of various state and central governments, which could be politically challenging.
- 🔄 If a state or central government collapses, it could disrupt the synchronized election schedule, posing a logistical challenge.
- 📊 The proposal is a subject of intense debate, with some viewing it as a revolutionary change and others as an abuse of power by the ruling party.
Q & A
What is the 'One Nation One Election' initiative in India?
-The 'One Nation One Election' initiative proposes that elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies should be held simultaneously, allowing voters to cast their votes for both their state and national representatives at the same time.
Why did the practice of simultaneous elections end in 1967?
-The practice ended due to political instability, such as the Congress party losing control in several states and the imposition of President's rule in some states, which led to de-linking the general election schedule from the state election schedule.
What are the primary benefits of holding elections simultaneously?
-The primary benefits include overcoming the inefficiency of the model code of conduct, reducing the high cost of conducting elections, minimizing governance downtime, and improving security by not diverting forces for multiple elections.
How does the model code of conduct affect governance during elections?
-The model code of conduct suspends the announcement of new development programs, welfare schemes, and capital projects from the time election dates are announced until the election process is complete, hindering governance activities.
What was the cost of the 2019 general elections in India?
-The 2019 general elections in India cost approximately 60,000 crores, making it the world's most expensive election.
What additional costs are associated with conducting separate elections?
-Additional costs include setting up polling stations, security arrangements, and logistics twice, as well as the indirect costs of governance downtime and the time officials spend on election duty instead of governance.
Why do some political parties oppose the 'One Nation One Election' initiative?
-Opposition arises because studies suggest the top party is more likely to win both state and national elections if they occur together, national issues might overshadow local issues, and politicians would face less consistent pressure to perform well.
What challenge would implementing 'One Nation One Election' pose regarding government tenures?
-It would require regulating the terms of various governments, potentially cutting short or extending terms to align with the new schedule, which could be unacceptable to many parties.
What is governance downtime, and how is it affected by elections?
-Governance downtime refers to the time that government officials spend on election duty instead of governance. Simultaneous elections could reduce this downtime, allowing officials to focus more on governance.
What would be the impact on security forces during simultaneous elections?
-Security forces, which are typically diverted for election duty, could maintain their primary duties more effectively if elections were held simultaneously, thereby improving overall security.
Outlines
🗳️ One Nation, One Election: Overview
The concept of 'One Nation, One Election' is gaining traction in India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government calling for a special Parliament session. This proposal suggests holding simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. While some hail it as a revolutionary policy, others criticize it as a power grab by the BJP. The idea has sparked significant debate among political parties and the media.
📊 Benefits of Simultaneous Elections
The 'One Nation, One Election' initiative is proposed to bring several benefits, including overcoming the inefficiencies of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), which suspends development activities during election periods. Holding all elections together could prevent governance downtime and save significant election expenditure. The 2019 general elections, for instance, incurred costs due to multiple elections held across various states.
🔍 Examining the Opposition
Despite the proposed benefits, there are substantial arguments against 'One Nation, One Election.' Studies suggest that simultaneous elections might favor the dominant party, reducing electoral chances for smaller parties. Continuous elections keep politicians accountable, and synchronizing terms would be logistically challenging. The concept also raises concerns about overshadowing local issues with national ones, and the complexity of implementing this policy effectively.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡One Nation One Election
💡Model Code of Conduct
💡Election Commission of India
💡Election Expenditure
💡Simultaneous Elections
💡Political Turmoil
💡Governance Downtime
💡Security of India
💡Staggered Election System
💡Political Parties
💡Election Logistics
Highlights
The concept of 'One Nation One Election' in India has been proposed to hold simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.
The idea was explored by a committee headed by former president Ramnath Kovind in September 2023.
Political parties have shown mixed reactions, with some opposing the initiative, fearing it as an attack on the Indian Union or a power abuse by the BJP.
Amit Shah has been named as a panel member to work on the 'One Nation One Election' initiative.
The initiative is considered revolutionary by some due to its potential to streamline the election process and governance.
Simultaneous elections could overcome inefficiencies caused by the Model Code of Conduct, which halts development programs during elections.
Election expenditure could be drastically reduced by holding all elections together, saving billions of rupees.
Simultaneous elections might lead to a higher chance of the top party winning both state and national elections.
National issues could overshadow local issues in simultaneous elections, potentially benefiting national parties over regional ones.
Politicians are under constant scrutiny with staggered elections, maintaining pressure for good governance.
The implementation of 'One Nation One Election' would require regulating government tenures, which could be challenging.
Elections held together could save on logistics, security arrangements, and reduce governance downtime.
The initiative could improve national security by reducing the mobilization of forces for separate election duties.
The discussion paper by former Niti Aayog members Kishore Desai and Vivek Dey provides insights into the initiative.
The transcript encourages viewers to read the discussion paper and form their own opinions on the matter.
The video concludes by presenting the challenges and benefits of 'One Nation One Election' for viewers to consider.
Transcripts
One Nation one election
here in India the rumor Mills are
buzzing there is talk of one nation one
election the government of prime
minister Narendra Modi has called for a
special Parliament session
I I was not expecting this foreign
foreign
foreign
on 1st of September 2023 a committee
headed by the former president ramnath
Cohen explored the possibility of
something called One Nation one election
in India and ever since this thing has
come out in public political parties all
across the country have been fuming with
anger Rahul Gandhi is calling it an
attack on the Indian Union kejriwal has
passed this move and even the DMK has
been opposing this idea and while all of
this has been happening Amit Shah has
been named as one of the panel members
to work on this one nation one election
initiative so with the gender elections
of 2024 closer than ever on one side
while it is being hailed as a
revolutionary policy on the other side
it has been criticized as the abuse of
power and a bjp's secret instrument to
win the 2024 elections and as usual our
media channels have been debating on
useless matters instead of actually
explaining the logic of the subject so
in this episode today let's cut through
the and try to understand what
is this one nation one election
initiative all about why is it
considered to be a revolutionary concept
by some parties why is it considered to
be a terrible concept by other parties
and most importantly for this video we
are using the discussion paper by former
members of the Niti IO who are Kishore
Desai and Vivek de broy and now bibek is
the chairman of the economic advisory to
the Prime Minister himself so after
watching this video do find the paper
from the link in the description so if
you're ready let's dive in so as usual
let's start from the basics and try to
understand what exactly is the meaning
of one nation one election people in
simple words if you look at the existing
system elections to the Lok Sabha and
the State Legislative assemblies are
held separately this is because they are
held when they are respective five-year
terms come to an end and these term
endures do not coincide with each other
so elections are held in different
states in different times but the one
nation in one election proposal suggests
that these elections must be held
simultaneously whereby the voters would
cast your votes for both their state
representatives and their National
Representatives at the same time
basically all the state elections and
Lok Sabha elections must be held at the
same time and this is not a new thing at
all in fact after the adoption of the
Constitution the elections to the Lok
Sabha and All State Legislative
assemblies were held simultaneously from
1951 till 1967 but from 1967 onwards
India saw a lot of political turmoil for
example in 1967 elections the congress
party lost control in several States
like Bihar Punjab and uttar Pradesh
these states either saw non-congress
parties or coalitions coming to power
then in 1968 president's rule was
imposed in uttar Pradesh just one year
after the state elections and in 1971
the then prime minister Indira Gandhi
called for early elections which were
originally scheduled to be held in 1972.
this again led to a de-linking of the
general election schedule from the state
elections schedule so one nation one
election Is Not A New Concept it
naturally got disrupted due to political
instability so now the question over
here is why does this government want to
apply One Nation one election strategy
again and what is so amazing about
holding elections of state and Central
together well as it turns out there are
several benefits to holding all the
elections together
first benefit is that India will
overcome the inefficiency of model code
of conduct mode for those who don't know
the model code of conduct is a set of
guidelines which are issued by the
election commission of India and they
are used to regulate the political
parties and candidates prior to the
elections so it says that from the day
that the date of elections are announced
till the entire process of election is
complete except for the routine
administrative activities any other
development program welfare scheme or
Capital project shall be suspended
similarly when the state elections are
held the state government cannot start
or announce any giant project even if
they are super important for the state's
economic for example in the 2019 general
elections the model code of conduct came
into effect from March 10th when the
election dates were announced till May
23rd when the final election results
were declared so during these 2.5 months
the center could not initiate any new
highway project welfare scheme and they
could not initiate any new healthcare
scheme all across the country in
Karnataka State Assembly elections the
model code of conduct was in effect from
29th of March 2023 to 13th of May 2023.
on top of that if the center specially
has something to initiate for the state
even that is not allowed during the code
of conduct time span so do you see
what's happening over here for 2.5
months the center could not initiate
anything and for 1.5 months the state
could not initiate anything so
effectively for four months the
government is simply not functioning to
initiate any new projects at all this is
because the election commission of India
believes that if these parties are
allowed to make Grand announcement just
before elections these parties both at
the center and state might use this
announcement to lure the voters to vote
for their parties so that is the reason
why the election commission of India is
very strict about not initiating any new
projects during this tenure and you know
what guys because of this reason in the
year 2014 governance and development
activities remained suspended for seven
months three months across the country
about two months in jharkhand and jnk
and another two months in Maharashtra
and haryana this is the first problem
that one nation one election will help
to solve by which the development of the
country will not be hindered due to
moral code of conduct product the second
challenge that it is expected to help us
overcome is the insane amount of
election expenditure did you know that
the 2090 elections alone costed us 60
000 crores in total and you will be
stunned to know that it was the world's
most expensive election and this number
is increasing at an alarming rate if you
see this graph in 2009 parliamentary
elections costed 1115 crores but by 2014
this number jumped up by three times to
3870 crores and it's not just the
election commission but even the
candidates spent a lot of money in their
campaigns according to official figures
parties spent
1587 crores in campaigning but
unofficially this number is estimated to
be around 30 000 crores and just after
the 2014 parliamentary elections many
state elections were conducted which
again costed us very heavily for example
maharashtra's election in 2014 costed us
793 crores jnk's election costed us 110
crores bihar's 2015 election costed us
300 crores and gujarat's 2017 election
costed us 240 crores so add this up to
the Lok Sabha election cost and you will
see that the bill comes to
3870 crores so between 2014 to 2017
alone with the existing calculation that
we have the government has spent a total
of
5313 crores in just conducting elections
and by the way I'm not even taking into
consideration the amount of money spent
in other states like Tamil Nadu West
Bengal haryana Assam and jharkhand where
the State Assembly elections were
happened during the same time and
because we don't have the stats we can
add them to the number but the point we
noted over here is that elections are
very very costly and you know what guys
according to this discussion paper if
only all these State Assembly elections
and parliamentary elections were held
together it would have cost us just 4
500 crores which means we would have
easily saved at least 2 000 crores in
election expenses on top of that there
are also other are losses that come
along with the election process for
example every time elections are held we
need to set up polling stations security
arrangements and Logistics cost two
times one for the general election and
one for the state elections so instead
of deploying polling booths electronic
voting machines and security Personnel
for state election and then again for
the national election if everything
could be deployed once it will cut down
the cost by a large extent and lastly
one of the most underrated costs that we
ignore is something called governance
downtime in simple words the time that
the government officials spend on
Election duty is the time that they will
not spend on governance for example
civil servants are often pulled away
from their regular duties to oversee
election Logistics but with one nation
one election such important people can
actually spend months of their time into
actual governance than just election
Duty and cherry on the cake even the
politicians will save a lot of money
because they just have to camp in once
in a particular state if one nation one
election is executed this is a second
benefit of one nation one election which
is a drastic decrease in both direct and
indirect cost
and the last benefit is the improved
security of our country now the question
over here is what is the connection
between election the security of India
well as it turns out the election
commission mobilizes roughly 10 million
people to ensure a smooth electoral
process all across the country and this
includes nearly a million polling
stations so just like downtime
governance when the forces are deployed
for election Duty for four months their
primary Duty gets compromised so now the
question is if one nation one election
is such an amazing concept then why are
these political parties opposing it is
it just propaganda or do they have some
medal to their argument well as it turns
out some studies state that with one
nation one election there is a chance
that the top party is more likely to win
sounds crazy isn't it so that's why we
looked into some stat and we found a
study in 2015 by The idfc Institute that
showed that if elections occur together
there is a 77 percent chance that the
top party will rule both the state and
the country
but if these elections happen six months
apart this percentage drops to 61
percent now the question we heard is why
will there be a sudden change in their
choices within just six months
well as it turns out sometimes voters
have second thoughts sometimes they
regret their first choice or sometimes
they are not as impressed by the party
as they were right before the elections
let's take Bihar as an example in 2014
41 percent of Bihar voted for BJP for
the parliament but fast forward to 2015
for the state elections that number fell
down to just 36 percent so do you see
this if both these elections had
happened at the same time there was a
very high chance based on this 2014 data
that BJP might have kept that five
percent Vote or perhaps they would have
even won the State Assembly elections
secondly it is said that with
simultaneous elections National issues
might overshadow the local issues and
eventually the national parties will
benefit whereas the smaller Regional
parties might struggle together wise
heard thirdly in a staggered election
system the politicians are constantly
under the scanner so after they get
elected at the center if the party does
something bad they know that they will
lose votes in the state elections so
when elections are always around it
creates a consistent pressure to keep
the politicians in check and makes them
more responsible to the problems of the
nation for example the general elections
were first held in 2014 and then in 2019
but in between this time span several
State elections happened like elections
in Maharashtra and haryana happened in
October 2014 Jammu and Kashmir in
November 2014 and jharkhand in January
2015. so even between both these general
elections the government was constantly
under the pressure to perform well so
that they can win the elections in all
these states but at the same time if
these elections are held only once in
five years the argument says that it
will make the government complicit and
it will ease the pressure of the
politicians to be more responsible and
lastly executing the one nation one
election policy is going to be a very
very tough challenge why because number
one all the government tenures will have
to be regulated for this term for
example if this policy had been used in
2019 elections Tamil Nadu Assam and
Kerala would have to cut short their
terms by two years whereas Goa
uttarakhand and uttar Pradesh would have
to extend their terms by two years and
this would be unacceptable by most
parties and even after its
implementation if again one of these
State parties fall or if the government
at the center is dissolved then again
the whole schedule will go out of sync
so this is the dark side of the one
nation one election move and now it's
completely up to you to decide whether
this is good or bad that's all from my
side to today guys I have attached all
the study materials in the description
do read through them and frame an
opinion of your phone if you learn
something valuable please make sure to
hit the like button in order to make
YouTube happy and for more such
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studies please subscribe to our Channel
thank you so much for watching I will
see you in the next one bye bye
[Music]
[Music]
thank you
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