Naga People’s Front (NPF) has strongly opposed the proposed simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. In a letter addressed to Dr. Niten Chandra, secretary of high-level committee on “One Nation, One Election”, the NPF president Apong Pongener and secretary general Achumbemo Kikon, MLA, asserted that the concept of “One Nation, One Election” would “invariably defeat” the spirit of federal structure. India being a Union of States with Federal Structure, NPF said the proposal to hold simultaneous elections was a direct assault on the very essence and fabric of the democratic features.
NPF reminded that various States have been created at different Stages with different reasons keeping in mind the composition of the multi-ethnicity of the citizens of Indian Union. While many more new States have been created mainly on linguistic line even in the recent past, NPF said some States especially Nagaland was born out of Political Agreement. Therefore, it said that a notion such as “One Nation, One Election” was detrimental to India.
Pointing out that India was one of most diverse countries in the world, the NPF said that “the idea of homogeneity or a one size-fits all” would be only a wishful thinking and would be repulsive also.
Further, NPF stated that voter turnout and voting percentage would drastically reduce if the theory of
“One Nation, One Election” propounded, adding it would speedily erode Indian democracy, which was normally measured from the voter turnout.
NPF said that the “entire gamut” of the proponent of “One Nation, One Election” was specifically from the reduction of expenditure point of view. However, it maintained that election related expenditure reduction measures cannot be adopted at the cost of Federalism.
NPF said “One Nation, One Election” would hardly make any difference in reducing the election related expenditures.
Once simultaneous elections were imposed upon, the party expressed apprehension that the relevancy of the regional political parties would also diminish as National agenda would overshadow regional and local issues.
Besides, NPF said the National political parties would take upper hand by using all sorts of tantalizing propaganda with an intention to hammer the regional political parties and would ultimately lead to “One Party Rule”, which would only invite chaos and confusion in the Indian polity.
Further, NPF said that use of money power and misuse of government machineries would be rampant during election by the National political parties to wrestle power if simultaneous elections were held. “This will definitely vitiate the atmosphere of free and fair election as well which will be another bigger threat to Indian democracy,” NPF said. In the light of the above, the NPF has strongly objected to the proposed simultaneous elections, adding that it did not subscribe to the concept of “One Nation, One Election.”