'One nation, one election' onslaught on federal system: Ex-law minister Moily

Congress leader M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday alleged that the idea of ‘one nation, one election’ is an “onslaught on the federal system” and the push by the Modi government is aimed at augmenting “one party and one leader”.

In a statement, Moily, who was the law minister in the Congress-led UPA government, said the move of the present government will work against the ethos of the well-cherished principles of the Constitution.

Moving ahead with its ‘one nation, one election’ plan, the government on Wednesday accepted a high-level panel’s recommendations for holding simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies in a phased manner after a countrywide consensus-building exercise.

“Under UPA II, the government of India undertook the agenda of electoral reforms in about seven national consultations across the country. The first consultation was held in Bhopal and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and the present Union minister, took active interest in the deliberations,” Moily said.

The consultation process was held among all the stakeholders of the political parties, activists, political thinkers and judges, he said. The concept of ‘one nation, one election’ never cropped up during the seven national consultations, said Moily, who was the minister of law and justice between May 2009 and“ May 2011.

The main focus was on free and fare elections, and other important reform agenda, he added.

Moily alleged that the high-level committee on simultaneous elections, headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind, did not have a wide range of consultations and it confined itself to consultations at the bureaucratic level.

None of the major political parties or the regional parties have been consulted on such a crucial issue, he claimed.

“The main concern of the nation is criminalisation, corruption and also the issues pertaining to EVMs in the elections. The focus of elections to the assemblies and Parliament are totally different,” he said.

The present concept of ‘one nation, one election’ is definitely intended to suppress regional issues and to focus on national agendas of the ruling regime, as also hero worship, Moily said.

“National issues and regional issues are different and the present Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) would want to trample upon regional issues at the cost of the Constitution to build his own image. I don’t think that the image of one leader could be bolstered up at the cost of the nation,” he said.

“It is an onslaught on the federal system of the country. It has now become a fashion for the present regime to bring about uniformity in a diverse country,” he said.

If the present proposed electoral reforms are encouraged, the BJP may come out with ‘one language, one culture and one nation’ and bulldoze the diverse culture of the country, Moily said.

“The move of the present government is targeted for building one party, one nation and one leader and will work against the ethos of the well-cherished principles of the Constitution of India,” said Moily.