What is the debate around ‘one nation, one election’? (GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Why in news?
- On September 1, the Central government set up a panel headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind to explore the feasibility of the ‘one nation, one election’ (ONOE) plan.
What is the ONOE plan?
- The idea of ONOE centres around the concept of synchronising the timing of Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections across all States to reduce the frequency of polls throughout the country.
- After the enforcement of the Constitution on January 26, 1950, the first-ever general elections to Lok Sabha and all State Assemblies were conducted simultaneously in 1951-1952.
- The practice continued into the three subsequent Lok Sabha elections until 1967, after which it was disrupted. The cycle was first broken in 1959 after the Centre invoked Article 356 (failure of constitutional machinery) of the Constitution to dismiss the then-Kerala government.
- Subsequently, due to defections and counter-defections between parties, several Legislative Assemblies dissolved post-1960, which eventually led to separate polls for Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
- Currently, the assembly polls in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are held together with the Lok Sabha elections.
What do reports say about ONOE?
- In August 2018, the Law Commission of India (LCI), chaired by Justice B. S. Chauhan, released a draft report on simultaneous elections, wherein the constitutional and legal questions related to the issue were analysed.
- It submitted that simultaneous elections are not feasible within the existing framework of the Constitution.
- It said that the Constitution, the Representation of the People’s Act 1951 and the Rules of Procedure of Lok Sabha and State Assemblies would require appropriate amendments to conduct simultaneous polls. The commission also recommended it receive ratification from at least 50% of the States.
- However, with respect to the advantages of holding simultaneous polls, the commission said that ONOE will lead to the saving of public money, reducing the strain on the administrative setup and security forces, timely implementation of government policies, and administrative focus on development activities rather than electioneering.
- Way back in 1999, the LCI headed by Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy also advocated for simultaneous elections.
What are the concerns?
Feasibility.
- Article 83(2) and 172 of the Constitution stipulates that the tenure of Lok Sabha and State Assemblies respectively will last for five years unless dissolved earlier and there can be circumstances, as in Article 356, wherein assemblies can be dissolved earlier.
- Therefore, the ONOE plan raises serious questions, what would happen if the Central or State government collapses mid-tenure? Would elections be held again in every State or will the President’s rule be imposed?
- Amending the Constitution for such a significant change would not only necessitate extensive consideration of various situations and provisions but would also set a concerning precedent for more constitutional amendments.
Federalism:
- The idea of ONOE does not square with the concept of ‘federalism’ as it is established on the notion that the entire nation is “one” contradicting the content of Article 1 which envisages India as a “Union of States”.
Democracy:
- The present form of recurrent elections can be seen as beneficial in a democracy as it allows voters to have their voices heard more frequently.
- As the underlying issues of national and State polls are different, the present framework prevents the blending of issues, ensuring greater accountability.
Centre’s DIKSHA e-education platform to offer AI help
(GS Paper 2, Education)
Why in news?
- The National e-Governance Division (NeGD) of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is set to integrate Personalised Adaptive Learning (PAL) into its existing Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) platform.
- The PAL’s software-based approach is expected to allow each student to have an individualised learning experience over the course of the curriculum based on their unique needs and abilities.
About DIKSHA:
- DIKSHA, which comes under the Education Ministry, provides e-content for schools by an online portal and a mobile application. It has embedded assistive technologies for learners with visual or hearing challenges. However, DIKSHA is a static content repository.
- DIKSHA features digitised National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks used by national and State Boards.
- Apart from this, DIKSHA hosts 2.43 lakh contributions by 11,624 academics by way of teaching videos, explainers, and practice questions.
PAL’s integration into DIKSHA:
- The NCERT has sought the MeitY’s expertise in facilitating the PAL’s integration into DIKSHA.
- In an example of how it works, if a student of Class 9 is learning the Pythagoras theorem and makes a calculation mistake, the AI learning system flags it and loops the student back to a basic video of how to make the calculation.
- In some States, private players are already administering the PAL, which works on AI or Artificial Intelligence, but budget constraints have been an obstacle.
Experiments in States:
- Andhra Pradesh has signed contracts with three privately owned edtech companies; Reliance Jio Platform’s start-up Embibe, ConveGenius, and Mindspark for training teachers to use IT applications in the classroom, provide analytics for remedial learning, and help students improve their conceptual understanding.
- In Assam, for instance, the PAL was adapted in 200 schools from Classes 6 to 10. Each school had nearly 200 students, and Embibe provided 10 devices per school. After implementing the project for two years, Assam discontinued it, citing lack of funds.
- Similarly, in Haryana, after floating the tender, the State government said Embibe’s quote for streaming content was too high, and the process of adopting PAL came to a standstill.
- Madhya Pradesh is mulling over introducing PAL for students from Classes 6 to 10 on its flagship State education portal, the CM-RISE.
Way Forward:
- Apart from PAL, MeitY is also considering the introduction of voice commands in DIKSHA 2.0 as a part of AI-enabled learning.
- The NeGD will float an Expression of Interest to assess the market for edtech companies that can help launch PAL and possibly integrate it with DIKSHA 2.0.
