The Thinking Cup With Anuradha Bhasin-One Nation, One Election: The Curious Case of Kashmir

As the BJP aggressively pursues its ‘One Nation, One Election’ narrative, the curious case of Jammu and Kashmir exposes its hypocrisy. This is the only state cleaved into two units and demoted from a state to two union territories in the history of independent India. This region was singled out for delimitation which has been criticized as a process of gerrymandering. Its elections were delayed for long and are now being held but the polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand are postponed. Kashmir serves a certain purpose in the BJP’s narrative. It doesn’t match its ‘One Nation, One Election’ narrative but will remain a main pivot of its election strategy elsewhere, from Jammu to Maharashtra. If the Election Commission of India (ECI) could not muster enough strength to hold elections in four states simultaneously, how can it conduct simultaneous elections for Parliament and Assemblies of all states in one go. The experience of the Lok Sabha elections beginning in April to June, spread over more than 6 weeks was not pleasant for many people. The voters, election duty officials and security personnel had bear the brunt of heatwave towards the end of May and beginning of June. Many election and security officials lost their lives due to extreme heatwave conditions.

Published on:

26 Sep 2024, 8:19 am

As the BJP aggressively pursues its ‘One Nation, One Election’ narrative, the curious case of Jammu and Kashmir exposes its hypocrisy. This is the only state cleaved into two units and demoted from a state to two union territories in the history of independent India. This region was singled out for delimitation which has been criticized as a process of gerrymandering. Its elections were delayed for long and are now being held but the polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand are postponed. Kashmir serves a certain purpose in the BJP’s narrative. It doesn’t match its ‘One Nation, One Election’ narrative but will remain a main pivot of its election strategy elsewhere, from Jammu to Maharashtra.
If the Election Commission of India (ECI) could not muster enough strength to hold elections in four states simultaneously, how can it conduct simultaneous elections for Parliament and Assemblies of all states in one go. The experience of the Lok Sabha elections beginning in April to June, spread over more than 6 weeks was not pleasant for many people. The voters, election duty officials and security personnel had bear the brunt of heatwave towards the end of May and beginning of June. Many election and security officials lost their lives due to extreme heatwave conditions.