SHILLONG:
The Voice of the People Party (VPP) has said that it concurs with the Centre’s proposal on ‘one nation, one election’, but it questioned the motive behind the move.
On the other hand, the party has expressed itself against changing the name of the country from India to Bharat.
“We see that in India we have elections every half year and I used to wonder how the prime minister will run the country when he is busy electioneering most of the time,” VPP spokesperson Batskhem Myrboh said.
But the spokesperson pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is leading the government at the Centre, is bringing this idea not for anyone’s good but for their own political benefit.
He said that the prime minister and other Cabinet ministers busy in state elections affect the quality of governance in the country.
However, Myrboh said that there is difficulty in the idea of ‘one nation, one election’ because the Constitution does not allow it.
He pointed out that as long as there are by-elections or the prime minister or the chief ministers have the power to dissolve the House before its term ends, ‘one nation, one election’ cannot be held.
“We have to amend the Constitution so that ‘one nation, one election’ can be implemented,” the VPP spokesperson added.
Myrboh pointed out that the voting pattern in the country is different in parliamentary and state polls.
“This may have led the BJP to think that if there is only one election at once all over the country it can be profitable for them because they can create issues which will touch the sentiments (of the voters) at the same time it will be favourable for them,” he added.
The VPP spokesperson said that according to reports the approval ratings for Prime Minister Narendra Modi is high at present and the BJP thinks that this will play a factor even in the state elections.
Myrboh pointed out that the BJP does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha at present and therefore it needs to form government in many states so that they can control the Upper House of parliament.
“If they control the Rajya Sabha it will be easier for them to bring changes in the country, but at present they have to cajole the smaller parties to support them to vote for the government,” he added.
Meanwhile, on the issue of possible change of name of the country from India to Bharat, the VPP spokesperson said that the word is already mentioned in the Constitution.
Myrboh said that both names are parallel even as he said, “When they write in Hindi they write Bharat, when they do in English they write India.”
He said that to use the word Bharat and forget India is not possible and the framers of the Constitution when they used these words they gave it a proper thought and the present generation should respect their intelligence.
The spokesperson said that the VPP does not want the word Bharat to replace India and should remain as it is in the Constitution.
“The word India was used a long time back and from that angle too we think that we cannot accept that the name should be replaced,” he added.
Myrboh also said that the southern and eastern part of the country, especially the non-Hindi speaking states are fond of using the word India.
“When we use it we have a sense of belonging to it but when we use the word Bharat there may be a psychological implication wherein people may feel alienated,” he added.
He also said that the right wing politicians are changing names of everything by giving Hindi names to attract the majority community.
“We cannot deny the BJP is trying to impose Hindi and that it becomes the lingua franca of India and we also cannot refute that they are using these sentiments of Hindu and Hindi to get votes. It is very clear and I don’t think that they too will deny this fact,” he added.