N
o sooner had Narendra Modi become
Prime Minister than he began launching
some pet programmes. One gives him
away completely. It is significant that the
Opposition parties are so demoralised that none
has a clear purpose. “One nation, one election”
is an assault on India’s federalism.
It means that the States must hold elections
to their Assemblies at the same time as that
of the Lok Sabha, which depends on the Prime
Minister’s discretion. He can, at any time,
go and ask the President for the Lok Sabha’s
dissolution. Under Modi’s plan, the States will
have to follow suit. The Chief Ministers will
lose their discretion, as will the governors, to
dissolve the States’ Assemblies and pave the
way for fresh elections and a new popular
mandate.
The architect of India’s Constitution, Dr B.R.
Ambedkar, told the constituent assembly
in 1918, “Under a parliamentary system of
government, there are only two prerogatives
which the king or the head of the State may
exercise.
One is the appointment of the Prime Minister
and the other is the dissolution of Parliament. ...
The position of the governor is exactly the same
as the position of the President.” In 1949, he
elaborated, “The States under our Constitution
are in no way dependent on the Centre for their
legislative or executive authority. The Centre
and the states are co-equal in this matter.” So
are they in regard to the right and power to askA.G. NOORANI
Constitutional Expert &
Political Commentatorthe Head of State to dissolve the legislature.
It is little realised that this is an indispensable
part of the parliamentary system. In the last
century, Britain had two dissolutions within a
year. Three powerful reasons lie behind this. A
situation arises in which the government has
to “go to the country”, to use a familiar phrase.
Another is that the Head of Government uses
the power to keep party colleagues in the back.
No one wants another poll before time. Lastly,
the chief minister can ask for a mid-term poll
to secure a popular mandate with which to
confront an overbearing Centre.
Modi’s plan keeps his own powers intact. He
can ask the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha
at any time. When he does, the States will be
bound to follow suit. There will be no fixed term
for either the Lok Sabha or State Assemblies.
These Assemblies will be tied to the apron
strings of the Lok Sabha, and will hold polls
whenever it does. And that will depend on the
discretion of one man.
So much for the constitutional distortion —
now for the political consequences. It will
convert a federal system into a unitary one,
and a parliamentary system into a presidential
one. It is precisely to secure both ends that Modi
proposed and pressed for this idea. He had
proposed it first in his previous term. Having
secured a huge majority, he revived it less
than a month after he took the oath of office
as Prime Minister. Why? He hopes to crush the
Opposition in the country.
The Modern RationalistJuly 2019