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CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on March 15
THE recommendation of the High Level Committee to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies and the steps proposed to achieve this are retrograde and will usher in a centralised authoritarian political system in the country.
There are 18 amendments to the constitution and other statutes proposed in the report. These will amount to truncating the parliamentary democratic system and the right of the people to elect a government for a five year term. It will also enhance the powers of the central government vis-à-vis the states. For instance, it is proposed to shorten the tenures of state assemblies, whose elections are held after the 18th Lok Sabha elections, so that these state assembly elections can be held along with the 19th Lok Sabha polls. This would mean, in effect, that the state assemblies of West Bengal, Assam, Tamilnadu and Kerala, following elections in 2026, will see their tenure shortened by more than half the full term.
The committee also proposes to hold all panchayat and local body elections within a hundred days of the simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. At present, the schedule of local body elections are decided and conducted by the state governments. The uniform electoral rolls for all three levels and simultaneous elections of the local bodies of all the states will mark a centralisation which goes against the very principle of the decentralised system of panchayats and local bodies.
The CPI(M), once again, reiterates its strong opposition to the concept of `One Nation, One Election’ and appeals to all democratic organisations and citizens to unitedly oppose this undemocratic proposal.
Pattern of Electoral Bond Funding Exposed
THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) welcomes the further direction of the Supreme Court to the State Bank of India for making the alphanumeric code of electoral bonds available towards disclosure of contributor-recipient identity. This underlines the fact that there are efforts to undermine the verdict of the Supreme Court on making funding to political parties more transparent for citizens.
Since the available data has been uploaded by the Election Commission on its website yesterday, efforts are on to analyse the data and it may take some time for the full impact to be understood. However, even the preliminary analysis shows instances of both quid pro quo and using agencies like the ED to forcibly extort funds from corporates through bonds.
The CPI(M) urges all political parties, groups and people interested in the future of democracy to protest and resist such brazen attempts at subverting electoral democracy.
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