Chennai: 'One nation, one election' will not benefit the states in any manner is the bottom line rather it would deprive the states of its regional importance, was the argument presented unanimously by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, and senior journalist N Ram, who attended the DMK legal wing conference that began here on Saturday.
The third state conference was inaugurated by the party's general secretary Duraimurugan at the St George's Anglo Indian School. During the panel discussion on the 'one nation, one election' Sibal said, "India is a union of states, that's the Preamble of the Constitution. Now, you've diminished the state. You are trying to destroy the basic structure of the state."
"One nation, one vote. One nation, one religion. One nation, one language. One nation, one man. One nation, one political party. That's what you are trying to do," he charged.
"You're destroying the very essence of our Republic. You're having your own cronies to support the idea without having a national debate on it or with political parties. But you want to push it down on our throats. I don't think the people of India will tolerate this. I'm sure the people of Tamil Nadu will not tolerate this," added Sibal, a Rajya Sabha member.
Asked which are the constituents of federalism at stake due to the simultaneous polls, Sibal replied it will impact the federal structure "in toto".
Every area of the federal structure will be impacted. How are we going to measure whether the state government has performed in any of the indices, like education? The problems in the (subject of) education in Tamil Nadu will be entirely different from that of Uttar Pradesh, argued Sibal.
Sibal, also a noted Supreme Court lawyer, said, "The proposal calls it a mid-term Assembly. When an assembly is constituted by the people, how can it be a mid-term Assembly? It has to be for a period of five years. That's the fundamental scheme of the Constitution. It is contrary to fundamental and basic features of the constitution."
"Five-year term is not going to be a fixed term of any government, anymore according to the proposed Constitutional Amendments introduced. It is fundamentally flawed," claimed Sibal.
N Ram, who was also a panel member, said this government which does not have the majority of its own, yet it is trying to bring in such a measure.
He pointed out the fact that the union government is in power only because they have the support of N Chandrababu Naidu's party from Andhra Pradesh.
"It won't be able to sustain if Chandrababu chooses to leave, then this government will fall. Then, there will be horse-trading as it used to be," said Ram.
S Y Quraishi said, "One of the excuses made while making the proposal is the model code of conduct, which is leading to policy paralysis and the government comes to a standstill. It is totally wrong and false." He suggested the attendees to research it for themselves.
The model code of conduct which is publicly available, stops only one thing, that is the announcement of new schemes, he added. "Why is that the bright ideas of new schemes comes to the mind of the politicians two weeks before the election, after having been in power for four years and 11 months," the former Chief Election Commissioner wondered.
He also explained how the new schemes can be announced. "Also, new schemes too can be announced in case of emergencies like earthquake, flood (relief) and others, after taking permission from the election commission," he said.
"The proposal to curtail model code of conduct is insincere. If want to curtail it, why are you doing 7 and 8 phase elections for the last 10 years. Even the elections to Gujarat and Himachal (Pradesh) used to be together for 20-30 years. They were separated by 22 days, which means the model code of conduct has been extended by 22 days. So the life was paralysed for 22 days, so where is the sincerity," questioned Qureshi, slamming the contradictions.
"When the idea was first mooted by Narendra Modi, even before he became the Prime Minister, he floated the idea which was there much before him and wanted to build a consensus. Then they said all three-tier elections have to be synchronized. They tasked (former President) Ramnath Kovind to study the possibilities of holding simultaneous elections, they did not give him a choice," added the former CEC.
"He was asked to provide modalities. When he gave his recommendations, he said we are not having all three tiers together and we will first have it in Lok Sabha and Assemblies. The panchayat elections will happen separately. Where is the simultaneous election? There are no simultaneous elections. Everything will have to be done all over again, from bandobust (security) to everything," said Qureshi.
On being asked whether it would really help reduce the cost burden, the former CEC said that it will not be the case as there is a limit for the candidate spending in the election and not for the political parties.
"Bring in a ceiling for the political parties. The spending of Rs 60,000 cr can come down to Rs 6,000 cr. Personally, I feel the spending of Rs 60,000 cr is good for the economy. The money is recycled. It goes to the poor. The autodriver, the poster workers and the like. It's good. So the entire proposal lacks sincerity," he added.
The conference would also discuss other topics, including "Dravidian ideology and its bearing on economic transformation."
