The 45th Independent Mass Power was held in National Institute of Mass Communication and Journalism, Ahmedabad on April 10, 2019 from 9-10am. Elections in India are celebrated no less than a festival and the Dance of Democracy goes on. This time, the topic chosen was ‘One Nation, One Election’ with the panelists Smt. Shraddha Rajput ji from BJP and Darsh Shah stating the positive aspects of the topic and Shri Bipinbhai Gadhvi from Congress and Sameer Parmar against the topic. The subject expert was senior journalist Shri Alkeshbhai Patel.
The discussion embarked with the amount of money being used up during the time of elections. After good research by the panelists, it was stated that in 2014, approximately Rs.30,000 cr was used up and the 2019 elections will be costing no less than Rs. 50,000 cr. The discussion covered up important topics like the powers of Election Commission of India and its role in conducting the elections fairly. The points also included the history of elections in India. The panelists in the ‘for’ stated important points like the elections taking up all the manpower, resources, etc. According to them, these could be put to good use and help in developing the Nation. Countering them, the panelists against the topic, came up with strong points like in a big and diverse country with a population of more than 130 cr people, like India, how difficult it is to conduct elections at the same time on such a large scale. The healthy discussion turned out to be very informative. The panelists in favor of the topic also spoke on how voting in the rural area is 100% as compared to the urban population. The people in rural area very well know whom to vote for at the local level and whom to vote for the sake of the country.
The Subject Expert concluded this healthy, informative discussion by enlightening us about the 7 national parties, 24 regional parties, and more than 2000 unregistered parties. He also gave us the technical and political point of views from earlier times and the modern era about the topic ‘One Nation, One Election’. The discussion concluded with the statement of problems that can be paid more attention to and what can be done to bring in ‘One Nation, One Election’.
One Nation, One Election is not a one day process, it will require a lot of meeting and proceedings to happen before it gets passed. As a theory it is an effective one which talks about low expenditure, more focus on development but if we look at the problems they need to be sorted before it gets passed again.
The discussion also brought up the major aspects of this concept and gave the students an insight on Indian Politics.
