After the announcement of the eight-member ‘one nation, one election’ panel, the Congress on Saturday alleged that the high-level committee, which will be headed by ex-President Ram Nath Kovind, is a “systematic attempt to sabotage India’s parliamentary democracy”.
Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal asserted that the non-inclusion of the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, in the panel and instead, having a former leader of opposition in it, is an “insult to Parliament”.
“We believe that the High Level Committee on simultaneous elections is nothing but a systematic attempt to sabotage India’s parliamentary democracy,” Venugopal said on X, formerly Twitter.
“In a shocking insult to Parliament, the BJP has appointed a former LOP to the committee instead of Rajya Sabha LOP Sh. Mallikarjun kharge ji,” he added.
Venugopal said first the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes up with this “gimmick” to distract from the Adani “scam”, unemployment, price rise and other pressing issues concerning people, then, to make matters worse, tries to tilt the “committee’s balance by excluding fierce opponents”.
“What is the reason behind Kharge ji’s exclusion?” the Congress leader asked.
“Is a leader who has risen from such a humble background to the top post of India’s oldest party, leading the entire opposition in the Upper House, an inconvenience for the BJP-RSS?” he asked.
Congress leader P Chidambaram said “one nation, one election” is a political-legal question.
“Actually, it is more political than legal. Whether the question deserves to be considered at this stage is highly debatable. All major political parties are stakeholders in this issue and they have not been consulted in forming the 8-member committee. The 8-member committee has just one member from a major Opposition political party,” he wrote on X.
The former finance minister added that he could “recognise only one acknowledged constitutional lawyer in the committee”.
“Like every other issue sponsored by the BJP, the issue of One Nation, One Election seems to be a pre-determined and pre-packaged issue,” he said.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh told reporters that talks on ‘one nation, one election’ is an “attempt to change the Indian Constitution”.
“However, it is not possible to implement it in the current Indian system,” he said.
On Saturday, citing “national interest”, the BJP-led Centre an eight-member high-level committee, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, to “examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections” to Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities and panchayats.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury opts out of panel
Although the Committee named Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, he on Saturday declined to be a part of it, calling it a “total eyewash”.
In a letter to Shah, Chowdhury said, “I have no hesitation whatsoever in declining to serve on the Committee whose terms of reference have been prepared in a manner to guarantee its conclusions. It is, I am afraid, a total eyewash,” he said in his letter.
“Moreover, the sudden attempt to thrust a constitutionally suspect, pragmatically non-feasible and logistically unimplementable idea on the nation, months before the general elections, raises serious concerns about ulterior motives of the government,” he said.
The Congress leader also lamented the exclusion of Kharge from the committee. “This is a deliberate insult to the system of Parliamentary democracy. In these circumstances, I have no option but to decline your invitation,” said Chowdhury, who is also the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.