INTRODUCTION 

"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Election is the foremost characteristic of the existence of any live democracy of any country. It is a phenomenon in which the representatives of the people are elected by them to make the government that will run the whole country. India is considered the biggest democratic country in the world and it is called the world's most populous country in the world too. People choose their most suitable leader and send him or her to the legislature to bring prosperity to the country by implementing appropriate laws. In India, however, there is an argument which now and then goes on regarding 'ONE NATION ONE ELECTION'. One Nation One Election or simultaneous Election means to conduct elections at all levels of political structure at one time. In the case of India, synchronizing the elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. It means that the voters will cast their vote for electing members of the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies on a single day, at the same time or in a phased manner as the case may be. In the present time, however, separate elections happen for Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for the term of 5 years only.

Simultaneous Election is not something that is being argued to implement. It has been in existence since the very first election of this country in 1952. It continued in 1959 until the Kerala Government was dismissed by Article 356 on the reason of failure of constitutional machinery. As a consequence, next year, state elections were conducted in Kerala and the synchronization broke of elections of Union and State Governments. Re-establishment of the same election has been suggested by various constitutional and non-constitutional bodies of India on various occasions.

For instance: 

• Election Commission annual report in 1983.
• Parliamentary Standing Committee Report 2015- ‘Feasibility of Holding Simultaneous Elections to House of People (Lok Sabha) and State Legislative Assemblies.
• Law Commission report in 1999 and 2018.
• NITI Aayog working paper in 2017.

PROFITABLE CONNOTATION OF ONE NATION ONE ELECTION 

"Holding Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls together will involve lesser waste of resources and enable a healthy culture of working together in the spirit of cooperative federalism for the common pursuit of India’s progress" ~ Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

If one nation one election becomes a reality then its positive impact can bring enormous changes in the political and administrative management of the country. We need to pay slight attention to understanding those points in the following manner: 

• Safeguard public administration from virtual paralysis: Whenever elections take place in any part of the country the whole political structure puts its entire focus on appeasing the people to win the election instead of making policies and administrative structure of the area inclined its attention towards conducting the elections in place of looking after the daily issues kneely. Thus, if one nation one election comes into effect it will allow the whole public administration to focus on the governance point once the elections are over. 
• Continuity in policy decisions: Once the date of the elections is announced 'Model Code of Conduct' comes into existence and as soon as it happens the ruling political party cannot announce any new beneficial policy for the people to appease them for that those policies can affect their vote percentage and can prove as an X factor to lead them win. However, these kinds of things act as a hurdle in policy decisions and they also waste a lot of time of the government and keep the people debarred from the beneficial government policy. Once simultaneous elections come into existence then the government will be able to implement those policies that have long-term benefits and not implement or announce those ideas that have short-term appeasing benefits for the people.
• Diminish corruption and cost of election: Money is that element whose requirement is always there in all sorts of work and when the question comes of conducting elections, it is expensive for both the election commission and the political parties. In the 2014 elections of Lok Sabha, the Election Commission spent around 38,703 Cr. whereas in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission spent around 55,000 Cr. Apart from the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission has to spend around 3000 to 4000 Cr. in every state assembly elections but that depends upon the geographical area and demography. Furthermore, the political parties have to spend thousands of crores of rupees on advertisements and contesting elections has also become very expensive. They have to collect donations from various business tycoons and as we know in this selfish world, nothing is free. For everything one has to pay something. Instead of giving monetary help businessmen ask for policies or agreements in the favour of their companies. This is corruption. Thus, if one nation one election comes into existence; although initially expenses may be huge but gradually the expenses will go down and political parties will also have to spend less and consequently it will reduce donations from business tycoons. 
• Reduce paramilitary burden: Paramilitary forces are to deploy in large numbers in state elections which happens every year in almost 2 to 3 States on an average. If the paramilitary forces are to station in once at a time then for the next upcoming 4 years they will not have to station in any state and in such a manner their manpower could be used in some other areas like protection of the border and save the lives who got stuck in natural calamities. 
• Scare chance of Horse-trading: Buying political leaders for the sake of falling down the trust vote of the current ruling political party or to get a majority to make their government, is called Horse-trading. MLAs and MPs do it for their political benefit. In the political language, it is called defection. To tackle this situation government brought Anti-defection laws. Despite the presence of anti-defection law buying of political leaders like MPs and MLAs are bought and sold. If, however, simultaneous elections come into existence then it would be difficult for one to buy MPs and MLAs for the sake of getting the current ruling government fall of the trust vote on the floor of the legislature. 
• Miscellaneous merits:
  1. If the elections of looks by and state assemblies are held at once at a time which means within some months. It would be very much less time-consuming.
  2. Media will be able to put its focus on the other areas of governance rather than covering only the political scenario of the country.
  3. When the people of the country know that it is the only time when their vote is going to create a huge impact by casting votes to both Lok Sabha elections and state assembly elections then there is a huge possibility of increment in the percentage of vote.
• Management of electoral rolls is a difficult task because there are different electoral rolls for Lok Sabha polls and State Assembly polls. And it costs a lot to maintain the data of electors. If one nation and one election happens then there will be a common list for both elections which will be easy to manage and people won't have the fear of losing their name from the electoral rolls. 

RESTRAINTS IN THE MATERIALISATION OF ONE NATION ONE ELECTION 

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr

Not implementing the One Nation and One Election concept in India has various various hindrances and those hurdles are serious in such a manner that the government of India has recently constituted a committee of eight members which is headed by the Ex-President of India 'Shri Ram Nath Kovind' and here we are going to discuss all those serious issues one by one:

1. Against the concept of Federalism: The concept of One Nation One Election talks about the notion of one nation which is contradictory with what has been written in Article 1 of the Indian constitution which denotes that 'Union of States'.
2. Setting up Synchronization: Setting up synchronization is the biggest challenge because every year there are some state assemblies' elections. In this very year of 2023, there are elections in three states Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Rajasthan, and in the next year, there are Lok Sabha polls. Therefore, there are some major concerns about it. The first concern is if one nation one election comes into existence then the various existing state governments will have to dissolve before their completion period of 5 years. How will it happen and will the state governments agree on it? Second, what would happen if the Central or State government collapses mid-tenure? Third, would elections be held again in every State or will the President’s rule be imposed?
3. Huge lack of EVM and VVPAT: Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) and Voter-verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) are currently used to conduct the voting in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies polls. Currently, the Election Commission has 13 lakh control units and 17 lakh ballot units which is not sufficient for organising simultaneous elections. It requires around 30 lakh electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines. That will cost around 9284.15 Cr. It will take a year to manufacture 6-7 lakh EVMs, hence it makes the task of simultaneous polls in 2024 difficult. Moreover, after every 15 years EVMs and VVPATs are to change. Such a huge number of EVMs and VVPATs will increase storage costs. 
4. Immense Manpower: Immense manpower is required to conduct elections in such a huge and a big democratic country. As we know India is the biggest democratic country and it conducts the most expensive elections in the world if simultaneous elections happen in India then the requirement of human resources will be in the same manner. 
5. National issues surpass Regional issues: The regional or the local issues are different from the national issues. For instance: In the recent Karnataka elections based on the local issues Congress party stood victorious whereas the national issues were not considered important to that extent. If, however, one nation one election becomes a reality then there is the possibility that national issues will surpass regional issues. As per the report of IDFC 2015, from 1999 to 2014 in 77% of cases, people voted for the same party at both the levels central and the state. Thus, regional issues can suffer. 
6. Less accountability of political leaders: If elections are happened frequently then people have the opportunity to change their mindset to vote, according to the previous performance of the current government at different levels. For instance: If people have elected X party for the central level and the state election is about to happen and at the same time people have found that the party X is not performing well then in their state elections the people can choose Y party instead of X and that will be a kind of jolt for a party X to improve their performance. As a consequence of frequent elections political leaders are in fear of bringing policies in favor of the common people because they know that they will have to go to their constituency to ask for a vote whereas in simultaneous elections political leaders will go just once in five years and that shows less accountability towards people. 
7. May not be cost effective: As per the report of Economics Times from 1952 to 2014 expense per vote has increased immensely. For instance: In 2014 for one vote election commission had to spend 46 rupees which is not a feeble value and when the election commission will have to conduct elections of the whole country the amount will go far ahead. 
8. Candidates' expenses are beneficial: Whether it is the candidate of Lok Sabha or the state assembly, one has to spend a huge amount of money to contest the election and these expenses are consumed by the private sector which positively benefits the economy so all expenses are not bad.

CURRENT STATUS OF HIGH-LEVEL COMMITTEE 

The current Union government of India intentionally wants to materialize the concept of a 'One Nation One Election' and it has moved its step as well in the form of constituting a High-Level Committee (HLC) under the chairmanship Ex-President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind. The other members are Union Home Minister Amit Shah, former leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad; Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal; former Chairman of 15th Finance Commission N.K. Singh; former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash C. Kashyap; senior advocate Harish Salve; and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari. As per the recent updates of thehindu.com, the Law Ministry has asked the Law Commission to study the feasibility of conducting simultaneous elections of Lok Sabha and state assemblies whereas the High-Level Committee led by Ex-President of India Sri Ram Nath Kovind will check the feasibility of conducting simultaneous elections of Lok Sabha, State assembly, PRIs, and municipalities. 

In the first meeting, the high-level committee decided on the views of political parties and for this officially they have dispatched letters to 6 national parties, 33 state parties, and 7 registered and unrecognized parties. 

The committee has also approved a budgetary provision for itself for the ongoing financial year 2023-24.

WAY FORWARD...

Conducting simultaneous elections in a country like India is not child's play. It is going to be a tough task for the Election Commission of India, and the Government of India, and it is going to be a new and stiff task for the citizens because it will be very much responsible. We are the responsible citizen of this country. We need to not only put our concerns towards the issues which are coming out of any problem but also should try to give some suggestions to tackle the situation and get positive results from them. There are some possible ways through which One Nation One Election can be made feasible: 

• Building up consensus with all the political parties should be a necessary step. Simultaneous elections will immensely change the political behavior of the political parties as well as the polity of India. 
• The Law Commission headed by Justice B. S. Chauhan reported that simultaneous elections are not feasible without bringing multifarious amendments to the Constitution of India such as Article 83, Article 85, Article 172, Article 174, and Article 356. Furthermore, some more definite changes are needed in the Representation of People's Act 1950, the Representation of People's Act 1951, and the Rules of Procedure of Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. 
• Big investment in infrastructural developments and logistics like EVMs and VVPATs. 
• Proper legal frameworks should be made to tackle situations such as no-confidence motions, premature dissolution of assemblies, hung parliaments, etc. Whenever any such circumstances come, legally the matters can be easily resolved. 
• Accountability of the political leaders must be ensured despite conducting elections once in 5 years, or 
• Reduce the tenure of Lok Sabha and State Assemblies and make it for 4 years only as there is in America. 
• Decisions on simultaneous elections must not be taken in a hurry. Suggestions should be taken from all the stakeholders including the citizen of India.
• Elections can be conducted twice in 5 years so that if any state government cannot complete its tenure then elections can be conducted again. 
• General awareness must be created amongst the people about simultaneous elections and their pros and cons. 

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REFERENCE:

• thehindu.com 
• indianexpress.com 
• iasparliament.com