Masterstroke or Death of Democracy: One Nation One Election EXPLAINED

on 17th of December 2024 a bill was introduced in the Lok saaba which has now caused a political battle in India One Nation one [Music] election this bill is set to be so game-changing so transformative and so controversial that the government calls it the biggest reform in Indian electoral history while the BJP says that it will boost India's GDP by nearly 5 lakh crores the opposition calls it an attempt to weaken democracy and set India on a path to dictatorship this bill is the one nation one election bill bill will finish off Regional parties this

bill is only brought in to massage the ego of the supreme leader one election One Nation One Nation one party One Nation one leader it is not an election reforms it is just a fulfillment of one gentleman desire and dream nothing more than that and while the political parties fight over this bill most of our media is busy turning this debate into a trp circus so we decided to read through some detailed research papers reports by the government and most importantly the Articles criticizing this policy so that we can cut through the chaos and help

you understand what is this one Nation one election bill how will it actually work will it really save us money or is it just a political gimmick why is the entire opposition calling it a threat to democracy and finally we are here to decode is this really a master Stroke by the BJP or a threat to democracy as the opposition Claims One Nation one election it's one of the bjp's distraction is the one nation one election feasible for India One Nation one [Music] but before we move on with the episode I want to quickly thank

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loka elections and the State Assembly elections all happen at the same time every 5 years whereas if you look at our election system right now we literally have multiple elections every single year for example in 2024 we first have the Loa elections then immediately after the loksa elections we saw elections happen in Jammu and Kashmir harana Maharashtra and jarand and and all these elections happened in different months of the year apart from that there are again local body elections for multiple municipalities and panchayats which keep happening somewhere in the country so in India there is

always an election happening somewhere or the other now this begs the question what exactly is the problem with elections happening every few months and why does the BJP intend to change it let's get together and sort of have elections together one you know let's change the name of India it's all distraction we know it we understand it and we're not going to let them do it well the first problem that the BJP argues about is governance disruption you see every time India enters election mode something invisible but devastating keeps happening the governance of India actually

comes to a grinding halt why because every election triggers something called the model code of conduct the model code of conduct is a set of rules designed to ensure Fair elections in India but in this process it hits the pause button on policymaking and hauls critical development projects so during this time no government projects or schemes can be inaugurated or announced and here's the shocking part this pause doesn't just last days it stretches into months [Music] with the elections happening at different levels national state and local this pause repeats itself over and over again in

fact in 2017 two economists BC de and Kishore Desi actually uncovered a startling truth they discovered that governance and development activities were suspended for months due to the model code of conduct 3 months Nationwide for the Loa elections and 4 months for four state elections that's over half a year where nothing moved forward and this pause has consequences that you can actually measure and see for yourself public investment during this time slows down and funds that are meant for your schools hospitals and roads they get stuck in a limbo in fact with elections happening at

different levels national state and local this pause repeats itself over and over again in Maharashtra if you combine the days spent on campaigns polling and governance paralysis the State loses about 300 days during the 5-year tenure so can you imagine 300 days is nearly one full year where the progress slows down secondly the elections are incredibly expensive the 2019 Loa elections alone cost 60,000 cror and add to this the cost of holding multiple state and local body elections separately the bill becomes enormous and for each elections Security Forces schools and administrative systems are overburdened thirdly

there are administrative hurdles every time elections are held essential Services take a hit police teachers and local officials are actually pulled away from their duties and schools turn into polling stations police and paramilitary forces leave their post and local officials are busy with election work and all of this put together it delays essential services for the people of India and lastly with the elections happening every few months the politicians are more focused on the elections than core governance these are the problems in the existing system because of which the BJP now proposes the one nation

one election bill one nation one [Music] election Optimum outcome [Music] in fact to put that into perspective the government has even published an entire paper on how it will boost India's GDP by 1.5% or add about 4.5 lakh crores to our GDP that's almost half of what we spend on Healthcare and 1/3 of our education budget and it doesn't stop there the study has shown that during simultaneous elections infl inflation decreases by 1% government expenditure shoots up by 18% and investments in the economy increases by 0.5% I'll attach this paper in the description so that

you can understand the nuances of the government's argument so overall if you see this is fantastic right the government will function for more days politicians will be more focused on governance and the administration can focus on their core task rather than election duties this along with thousands of crores in savings makes it a perfect Bill to be passed right then the question is why is the opposition against the one nation one election bill are they opposing the bill just for the sake of opposing the BJP or do they really have some violent arguments to make

is not at all practical in this country one na it's it's one of the bjp's distraction strategies One Nation one election one [Music] well I'm so happy to say this that the opposition really has some very very valid points that we must take into consideration and regardless of what your political inclination is my only kind request is please think about what is good for the country and not who is presenting these points so if you have an open mind let's dive into these challenges the first challenge is constitutional and legal hurdles in executing the one

nation one election bill you see India's democracy runs on federal structure where the center and state operate independently so synchronizing elections would demand a massive constitutional overall you know what we have to do the government would need to dissolve All State assemblies where each of them have a different tenure and we have to align them with the Loa elections but how do we do it do we force State assemblies to collapse before the tenure ends or do we impose president's rule where the center takes control of the states both these scenarios are dangerous and just

to make this work we would need to rewrite at least five constitutional articles which are article 83 85 172 174 and 356 and here's the catch at least 50% of the states must approve these changes think about it in a deeply divided political system like India can this ever happen smoothly so the question that the opposition is asking is that are we prepared to force Unity by undermining the spirit of our constitution think about it the second problem is the overlapping National and state issues you see India isn't just one nation it's a patchwork of

diverse States cultures and issues and yet under one nation one election National narratives might just overshadow Regional voices in fact when elections are synchronized studies show that there is a 77% chance that the voter would choose the same party for both Center and the state for example in 2014 the BJP swept the Loa elections with a national wave and during the harana assembly elections which were held later that year local issues like unemployment and farmer distress were overshadowed by the Modi wave which helped BJP dominate again the Congress has been completely decimated in its stronghold

of harana and for the BJP the Modi wave still intact in the state as the S party crosses the halfway mark very comfortably similarly in Tamil Nadu Regional parties like DMK and Aid DMK dominate State politics because they focus on issues like the Cav water dispute and Tut goodi copper plant dispute it is a shocking to us there is no water how to bring water how to release water it is very difficult Karnataka is not the owner of kav that is the international understanding nobody can claim that this river is mine but if the elections

align with the national cycle these concerns risk being drowned out by larger National issues like National Security or inflation for example in 2019 the BJP ran a centralized campaign on National security and prime minister modi's image after the balakot strikes and the result the BJP won 303 seats nationally but States like Tamil Nadu and Kerala rejected BJP because they wanted their parties to focus on state level issues like education and farmer distress so when national elections and state elections merge what will happen the bigger parties with massive resources will flood every street with their slogans

and suddenly the concerns of a farmer in Punjab a weaver in Tamil Nadu or a fisherman in Kerala will no longer make headlines why because local voices are no match for a roaring well-funded national campaign so the opposition presents an argument that if National parties dominate every election what happens to that delicate balance of power will tadu still have the strength to oppose the policies that will harm the farmers and will the adivasis of jarh and odisha still find leaders who Champion the struggles or will these voices be forgotten under the weight of a national

campaign this is a second argument that the opposition Pres the third argument says that frequent elections even though costly ensure that the governments remain accountable to the people throughout their term and The Classy example of the same is utar Pradesh you see even though yogii won in 2022 in the 2024 Loa election voters Express their dissatisfaction which caused the BJP seats to drop from 62 in 2019 to 33 in 2019 the BJP swept it they swept up and they won 62 out of the 80 seats but this time the BJP slipped up this shows how

voters use elections to express their anger midterm and how they choose a different party during the state and Central elections but if the elections are held only once for both state and Center every 5 years the voters will not have a chance to show their dissatisfaction so the opposition argues that we might achieve efficiency but we might compromise on accountability so the question is when the one nation one election policy has so many logistical challenges is how does the BJP intend to align a billion people 28 States hundreds of local bodies and Decades of tradition

into a single synchronized system well the bjb has a plan a phased plan that is expected to transform the way India Works forever and this is what it says phase one is about synchronizing Loa and State Assembly elections imagine this one election one booth but two votes during this election every Indian will walk into a polling station and cast not one but two wordss one for their MP to decide who runs the central government another for their MLA to decide who governs their state it is set to be simple efficient and most importantly it is

expected to save a lot of time money and efforts but this is only the beginning phase two is proposed to bring local body elections into the system so phase two aims to bring even the smallest elections in the same cycle so this includes the pchat the municipalities and the corporations these elections will take take place within 100 days of the Lok SAA and State Assembly polls and at the end of this journey the BJP says that India will witness something that it has never seen before a perfectly synchronized election calendar for the entire country but

before you think this is simple I have to tell you that nothing in politics is either simple or efficient and just like every other policy there is one big big problem with the implementation of the one nation one election policy you see implementing this plan isn't just about aligning ideas it's about overcoming Decades of political chaos ensuring fairness and most importantly it's about resetting the system without breaking it and to truly understand this you need to understand four critical Concepts full-term unexpired term general elections and midterm elections and trust me these terms may sound dry

and Technical but don't worry I will make them very simple for you so let's get started let's start with full D and general elections so here's the ideal scenario in 2024 you elect your Lok SAA MP and your state MLA both these Central and state governments begin their Journeys together and serve their full 5-year terms until 2029 and then in 2029 voters come back and cast their votes again and the cycle resets so it's smooth and perfect but as usual in politics nothing is smooth and nothing is perfect and when things go wrong we will

see unexpired term and midterm elections come up so imagine this it's 2024 and maharashtra's new government starts with its 5-year term which is supposed to last until December 2029 but then a political crisis hits and the government collapses in 2027 this leaves 2 years of the term unfulfilled now this period of two unfulfilled years is called the unexpired ter and to fill this wi the midterm elections will be held now here's the crucial part this new government that has been elected in 2027 will not get a fresh 5-year term instead they will serve only the

remaining 2 years until 2029 just to align with the original election cycle so this rule ensures that no matter what happens the election system resets every 5 years but this begs another big question the real challenge in the present scenario is to reset the current election Cycles because elections for different states and the LBA as of now do not align at all so karnataka's term will end in 2028 Delhi will hold elections in 2030 and the Lo saa's term will end in 2029 so how on Earth do we bring all these elections onto the same

godamn calendar and this is where ladies and gentlemen the BJP has proposed a one-time transition phase to bring order to this chaos and here's how the BJP plans to align every election step by step firstly we will have the appointment date for example on 1st of May 2029 the entire country would vote in the general elections and a brand new Lo SAA will be SW in this is when the president will issue an official notification declaring this day as the appointment date from this day forward a Special Rule will come into play where the terms

of all state assemblies will align with the Lok saa's 5-year term so here's how it will work Karnataka will hold its elections in 2029 instead of 2028 so karnataka's term will automatically extend by one year to perfectly sync with the loka similarly Delhi holds the election in 20130 so normally it storm would run until 20130 but this time delhi's term will end one year earlier in 2029 itself to again align with the Lok SAA so this way some states will see their term end earlier while some states will see an extension to their term so

no matter when a state election happens its term will reset to end with the Lo saa's term and now if the loksabha or the State Assembly is dissolved before its term ends a midterm election will be held and the newly elected government will only serve the remaining unexpired term so no matter how unpredictable Indian politics gets the system will reset itself every 5 years this is how the BJP envisions that by 20134 India will witness something truly revolutionary every single Indian from Kashmir to kanyakumari from Mumbai to Manipur will cast their wordss in the same

election cycle for both the Loa and for every State Assembly so for the first time in history India will have a fully synchronized election system A system that saves resources eliminates political distraction and gives government a clear mandate to govern for 5 years but you know what guys I see one very big problem over here under this new system if a state government collapses midterm fresh elections will elect a government that serves the short term which will last only one or two years so if maharashtra's Government collapses in 2027 the new government will only serve

for 2 years now you tell me why would this party in power focus on long-term reforms when they know that they on a borrowed tenure so would these governments focus on performance or would they simply Scramble for political survival and more importantly will a government running on borrowed time prioritize bold long-term reforms that benefit the people or will they resort to Quick Fix populism and freebies think about it they will try to survive the next elections right and this way if governance becomes about short-term survival who really pays the price it is undoubtedly the people

the progress and the Very future of the state this is my argument against the one nation one election bill so in summary here's what we have to think about the one nation one election bill number one synchronizing elections could bring efficiency and National Unity but we risk silencing Regional voices as a national wave might overshadow local issues number two simultaneous elections may allow voters to focus on broader National level priorities like infrastructure defense and economic reforms but critical State specific problems like farmer distress and water disputes they might lose attention if National narratives dominate number

three reducing elections to once every 5 years would ensure that the governments have uninterrupted stability to implement long-term policies but we have to remember that frequent elections ensure constant accountability giving voters the power to punish non-performing governments midterm number four by aligning terms the system ensures that elections remain synchronized regardless of the midterm crisis but we must remember that a government serving a short term of one or two years might lack the incentive to implement long-term reforms so they might just focus on short-term political gains which could drain the economy of a particular State and

lastly the model code of conduct ensures elections remain fair and free of undue government influence but reforming the model code of conduct could prevent policy paralysis without the massive expense and disruption of implementing the one nation one election policy so the ultimate question is when something can be fixed with a minor tweak in the model code of conduct why should we risk disrupting the entire election system and spend 10,000 crores these are the questions that we need to think about as the one nation one election bill moves through the Parliament and I just hope you

learn something valuable and insightful from this case study that's all from my side for today guys if you learn something avable please make sure to share this video with your friends and family so that they have a deeper understanding ing of something so important in the country and if you learned something valuable please make sure to the like button in order to make yoube happy and for more such insightful business and political case studies please subscribe to our Channel thank you so much for watching I will see you in the next one bye-bye [Music] [Music]