Mamata rejects ‘one nation, one election’ idea

Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of India’s West Bengal state, yesterday hit out at the controversial ‘one nation, one election’ idea, labelling it “a design to subvert the basic structure of the Constitution” and create a system to allow “autocracy (in) a democratic garb to enter the national public arena”. “I am against autocracy and, hence, am against your design,” Banerjee asserted. The Trinamool Congress boss – a fierce critic of the Narendra Modi government, which she has accused of subverting the country’s federal structure – red-flagged that concern once again, declaring sarcastically, “You seem to be conveying some sort of a unilateral top-down ‘decision’ already taken by the central government – to impose a structure that is against the spirit of a truly democratic and federal (nation)”. In a detailed letter to Dr Niten Chandra, the Secretary of a high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind – that has called for suggestions for implementation of the idea, she said she had “basic conceptual difficulties with the principle”, as also “difficulties with your methodological approach”. The two conceptual issues she raised were “the constitutional and structural implication of the term ‘one nation'” and, crucially, questions over the timing of parliamentary and Assembly elections, particularly when there is a significant gap in existing poll cycles. Banerjee also pointed out potential ruptures in the ‘one nation, one election’ idea if either the Lok Sabha or a state Assembly “is subject to untimely dissolution”, and warned, “Instability of a government at the centre should not destabilise state legislatures…”londonGBDESK//