Simultaneous polls will turn India into managed democracy: AAP
New Delhi, July 8: Rejecting the idea of simultaneous polls floated by the Narendra Modi government, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday said that such a system would turn India into a "managed democracy".
AAP leader Ashish Khetan, who appeared before the Law Commission to present his party's views, said after the meet: "We are against the idea of the so-called one-nation-one-poll because it will turn India's federal democracy into a managed democracy."
He added that for simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies to happen, the Constitution of India will have to be "mutilated and rewritten completely".
"What will be left will be a pretense of democracy. The current dispensation will curtail the democratic rights of the people of this country. It will snatch away people's right to vote or vote out a government. There will be a domination of muscle and money power," Khetan said.
Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its absence from the Law Commission's meeting, he said it was "bizarre" that the party which floated the idea is itself missing from the discussion.
The AAP leader also emphasized how simultaneous elections would turn a "thriving, open and transparent democracy" of India into a "Stalinist democracy" where people will get the right to vote once in five years and not get the chance of self-correction if the chosen government fails to impress.
"You are taking away the people's right to self-correction because often we have seen in this country that people vote differently in Parliament elections and six months down the line, people vote differently in a state election," Khetan argued.
"It is basically a reeking of a dictatorial mindset," he said.
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Mumbai family deaths: FDA finds no watermelon vendor in area to check for affected stock
Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.
The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.
They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.
"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.
But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.
The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.
A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.
The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.
