New Delhi: Opposing the Union government’s ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal, the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday submitted a response to the Law Commission calling it unconstitutional and against the principles of democracy. The party said the proposal is a front to legitimise BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ and legalise the sale and purchase of MLAs. In a press conference held on Monday, AAP MLA Atishi and senior leader Jasmine Shah attacked the Union government for the proposal and described in detail their party’s stand on the issue.
According to Atishi, under ‘One Nation One Election’ if no party gets a majority, then MLAs and MPs can elect Chief Ministers and Prime Minister through direct presidential-style voting. She further added that direct voting will take place in absence of anti-defection law, which will ensure that the MLA or MP of any party can vote for the CM or PM of another party fulfilling BJP’s dreams of running ‘Operation Lotus’ throughout the country at once.
Jasmine Shah said: “Through One-Nation-One-Election, BJP now plans to enshrine ‘Operation Lotus’ in the Constitution. Dr BR Ambedkar had said the basic principle of the ‘parliamentary form of government’ is to bring a government that will not be accountable to the public once in five years but will be accountable every day. Out of the total donations received by all the parties, three-fourths are received by the BJP, through the misuse of ED-CBI, the BJP buys MLAs and only BJP benefits from this proposal. Opposing the proposal of One-Nation-One-Election, the Aam Aadmi Party has submitted its 12-page representation to the Law Commission.”
Atishi added: “Constitutional amendments proposed to achieve simultaneous Central and state elections under the One-Nation-One-Election plan are an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution. The proposal calls for elections for states and Centre to be held only once in five years, simultaneously. In 2018, the Law Commission analysed the idea and brought out a 175-page report supporting it. In December 2022, the Law Commission shared the report with stakeholders and political parties seeking their views on it. The Aam Aadmi Party has submitted a 12-page reply highlighting its concerns against the proposal. There are several parts of the proposal that lack any basis of principle. At the outset itself, Parliament has the power to amend the Constitution but it cannot alter its basic structure, as held by a 13-judge bench of SC in the landmark judgment of Kesavananda Bharati case.”
Shah also added that the proposal of ‘One-Nation-One-Election’ has been coming up in the news sporadically for many years now. The leader said: “The Prime Minister or the BJP mentions it every couple of years, and in 2018, the Law Commission analysed the idea and brought out a 175-page report supporting it. So, the Aam Aadmi Party analysed the proposal with an open mind to understand its good and bad ideas in detail. Had we come to the conclusion that the proposal may benefit the country, we would have definitely supported it. But when we closely read the report and how they plan to implement the idea, we have come to a very different conclusion.”
Addressing the issue of a ‘constructive vote of no confidence’ in the proposal, Shah said the fundamental idea of democracy is that the power must be in the hands of the people so that in case, they lose confidence in the previously elected government, they can make the government fall by withdrawing their support through their representatives ie. the MPs or MLAs.
“So, the idea of ‘Constructive Vote of No Confidence’, which has been mentioned in the ONOE proposal is gravely concerning. It is very worrying that since the BJP came to power at the Centre, the blatant buying and selling of MLAs has already been almost legitimised through their ‘Operation Lotus’,” said Shah.
“Now, with the ONOE proposal, they are aiming to legally allow and encourage this through the constitutional stamp of approval. They want to write down that the PM and the CM will be elected through the formula of the Speaker of the House and any member could vote for any party. We are all aware of which political party is the wealthiest in our country,” said Shah.