One Nation, One Election: Does it reflect an Indian way of thinking?

Let's weigh this push for efficiency and cost-savings against what it could imply for our complex if messy democratic system

- SANJOY CHAKRAVORTY

One of the common themes of regimes in power at the Centre is a drive to standardize or make uniform some important aspects of policy and process throughout India. This drive is not partisan, in the sense that both major national parties have shown their propensity to do this over the decades. One could argue that this drive has gotten stronger in recent years, most likely enabled by digital technology that makes things possible which couldn't have been imagined earlier.

This uniformity drive includes some procedures that have been established for many years, such as national examination systems for engineering (JEE for central institutions), medicine (NEET for all medical colleges), civil services (the UPSC exam), CAT (for management), CLAT (for law) and so on. More recently, we have seen the creation of the Aadhaar card system under the Unique Identification Authority of India. Its current form was established in 2016 (by the BJP-led NDA), but it was the brainchild of the Congress-led UPA and began functioning in 2009. This 'voluntary' mechanism is the world's largest biometric database and increasingly feels like a requirement for all practical purposes.