One Nation - One Election: Implications for Indian Parliamentary Democracy & Federal Structure
One
Nation - One Election:
Implications for Indian
Parliamentary Democracy & Federal Structure
[Dr S Swaroop Sirapangi holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad. Email: ssanthiswaroop@gmail.com &
Mr Anil
Kumar Kathi submitted his Ph.D. thesis to the Department of Political Science,
University of Hyderabad. Email: kathianil14@gmail.com]
Abstract:
The
current Indian political regime, primarily headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP)’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition, is in favour of One
Nation-One Election. Towards this end, the NDA regime even introduced a bill
for the amendment of the Constitution of India. In this context, the present
paper points out how and why the BJP is in favour of One Nation - One Election
through the proposed 129th Constitution amendment bill introduced in the
Parliament of India and subsequently referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
How to understand the ideological variations of the BJP towards the
Constitution of India, society, polity, and how such dynamics have potential
threats to the federal fabric, though India is much romanticised as having
‘Union/Federal structure with strong Unitary features’? Why does the BJP, which
was actually in favour of the change of the Constitution of India, now
articulate faith in the Constitution, yet attempts to quell the Constitutional
spirit and Indian federal characteristics? How to visualise and understand this
trend in the BJP and Indian political process? How might these dynamics have
potential effects on the Centre - State Relations? These are some of the
pertinent research questions which this paper ‘interrogates’ based on
theoretical debates and the logic of parliamentary democracy and the spirit of
federal structure.
Keywords: One
Nation - One Election, Federal Structure in India, Centre - State Relations in
India, Procedural Democracy, Substantive Democracy.
[Proposed under the theme ‘Centre
State Relations: One Nation – One Election’.]
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