Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said the ‘One Nation, One Election’ Bill has been brought in Parliament only to massage the ego of the ‘supreme leader.’
Opposing the Bill, the Hyderabad MP accused the government of indirectly introducing a ‘presidential style of democracy’. He claimed that the bill threatens the survival of regional parties. “This Bill will finish off regional parties,” Owaisi said.
He believes that ‘One Nation, One Election’ undermines federalism and violates the Constitution.
Criticising the Bill’s impact on India’s federal structure, Owaisi said that States cannot be treated as appendages of the Centre. “Parliament is not competent to make any law that violates fundamental rights,” he said.
The AIMIM leader asserted that the Bill infringes on the democratic right to self-governance, which is an integral part of Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution. “If a Legislative Assembly is dissolved and mid-term elections are conducted, the tenure of that Assembly will not last for five years. This in itself is a violation of parliamentary democracy, which envisages a tenured legislature,” he said.
He argued that once elections were conducted, the House should have the right to function for the next five years. He alleged that such a proposal, being pushed for administrative convenience rather than constitutional necessity, compromises the basic structure of the Constitution.
