India TV Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma.
When elections were held for the first time in the country, Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were held simultaneously. In such a situation, the idea of ’One Nation, One Election’ is not new. Perhaps the constitution makers did not anticipate that parties would break up, leaders would change parties, governments would fall and mid-term elections would be held. But governments in the Centre and states have fallen and formed so many times that now elections are held somewhere or the other every 6 months. Due to elections, the Centre or state governments are unable to do development and reform work, and are unable to take tough decisions. Everyone is afraid that people may get angry, our votes may slip away. Therefore, the idea of holding simultaneous elections is right, but it will be difficult to implement it.
No matter how clear the intentions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are in this matter, Congress habitually opposes every decision of the Modi government. Congress leaders see a conspiracy behind every action of Modi. Other parties will also see whether it is beneficial or harmful for them instead of looking at the pros and cons. Therefore, it is meaningless to expect that political parties will see ‘One Nation, One Election’ above politics. Actually, some opposition parties feel that if simultaneous elections are held, they will not have enough resources to compete with Modi. The second fear is that the opposition parties do not have a strong national leader like Modi who can take everyone together in a single election across the country. But they cannot say this. Therefore, they are talking about irrelevant things.
Some are saying that Modi wants to weaken the state governments, some are saying that this is the agenda of RSS, some are saying that Modi will implement the President’s rule system in the country. But all these are useless talks. I have told you the real thing that many leaders feel that if ‘One Nation, One Election’ happens then even all the parties together will not be able to compete with Modi and they also feel that if Modi has decided to hold ‘One Nation, One Election’ then there must be a big and powerful plan behind it. This fear and this doubt will prevent most of the parties from standing with this decision. (Rajat Sharma)
Watch: ‘Aaj Ki Baat, Rajat Sharma Ke Saath’ full episode of September 17, 2024
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