Top-heavy Pyramid

The idea of One Nation, One Election seems outlandish since the architecture of the election process doesn't allow much space for it

- Tanvir Aeijaz

INDIA after traversing almost seven decades of electoral democracy, with all her trials and tribulations, the very idea of One Nation, One Election (ONOE) now seems quite outlandish for the simple reason that the architecture of the election process, as envisaged constitutionally and practised in accordance with the imperatives of federalism, doesn’t allow much space for it. Indian federalism, to begin with, is both structurally and process-wise multilevel–Centre, State and Local—and elections happen at all the levels according to their own contingencies and exigencies. Can we conceive of elections, notwithstanding the size and scale, at all three levels at one go? Why is nobody talking about local elections? Panchayats and municipalities are the bedrock of Indian democracy and any sort of marginalisation of local elections or, for that matter, trivialisation of state elections by the ONOE scheme would gradually subvert the ‘constitutionalisation of democratic politics’ in India.

The ONOE