Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan strongly opposed the idea of ’one nation, one election’, calling it ridiculous and unconstitutional and said that holding simultaneous elections in a parliamentary democracy is impractical.
Bhushan made the remarks at a program organized by Comrade HL Parwana Memorial Trust here. Responding to reporters’ questions on ‘one country, one election’ after his speech, he said, “This is ridiculous and unconstitutional because in a parliamentary democracy, simultaneous elections cannot be held as the government depends on the confidence of the majority in the House.” “
He said, ‘If there is a split in the party or some people defect, the government may fall and if the government falls and no other government is formed then what will you do? Either you will impose President’s rule for the remaining period and what will you do if the central government falls? You cannot impose President’s rule there. Therefore you will have to hold new elections, otherwise it is against democracy. He also appreciated the recent decisions taken by the Supreme Court.
He said, ‘We have seen that some good things have happened in the Supreme Court. One is to put a stay on all litigation regarding acquiring mosques for temples or investigating whether there are temples under mosques or not.’ He said, ‘The Supreme Court has said that at present these cases will not proceed further. This is a very important development that has happened.
He said that the second important decision is about ‘bulldozer justice’. He said, ‘They have given a very good decision effectively banning it. He has also given several judgments regarding misuse of powers of the Enforcement Directorate. ED has become the main instrument to harass opposition leaders or activists, journalists etc., where anything can be termed as money laundering and hence ED gets involved in anything.’
