Watch Nidhi Razdan: Will India opt for One Nation, One Election format?

Transcript

00:00A government-formed committee on looking at holding simultaneous polls to state legislatures

00:09and the Lok Sabha is nearly ready with its report.

00:12And law ministry officials have been telling journalists in the last few days that more

00:15than 80% of the responses that they have received on the proposal are overwhelmingly in favour

00:20of a one-nation, one-election.

00:22The problem, however, lies with the credibility of the process and the credibility of the

00:27panel itself.

00:28The panel is headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, who has publicly expressed support

00:32for simultaneous polls in the past and in fact, every member of this eight-member panel

00:37has either expressed support for one-nation, one-election publicly or is seen to be close

00:42to the BJP.

00:43There was only one opposition voice that was included in this panel originally, that was

00:48the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Congress's Adhirajan Chaudhary, but he

00:52dropped out and refused to be part of the proceedings, saying that the entire exercise

00:56was an eye-wash.

00:57Actually, that doesn't seem to have been a very good idea.

01:01Because at the end of the day, this is an important issue and even if the Congress was

01:05the sole opposition voice there, it was important for them to record their opposition in black

01:10and white in front of the official committee.

01:12But that aside, the process too has been marred with controversy.

01:16If you look at the terms of reference of the committee, it's quite clear from the very

01:20beginning that they have made up their minds about which way their report is going to go

01:24and what it is going to suggest.

01:27And there really hasn't been any meaningful consultation with regional parties and others

01:33to have a robust debate on this.

01:35Because if India does go in for simultaneous polls, it will have a huge impact on the way

01:41electoral democracy is conducted in the country.

01:45Regional parties in particular are going to lose out.

01:47They stand to have the biggest disadvantage as a result of this.

01:51And it is a national party like the BJP that stands to gain the most from it.

01:55An exercise like this required an honest and meaningful debate and discussion to take place,

02:01not the kind of process that we are seeing now.