It was effective 2018, four years into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term in office, that Sweden’s V-Dem Institute marked India’s descent into a state it describes as an ‘electoral autocracy’. That dubious classification has stuck ever since, though the democratic backsliding is, in fact, far worse than the label might suggest. In the 2026 edition of V-Dem’s Democracy Report, India is ranked #105 (out of 179 countries) on its ‘Liberal Democracy Index’.

For citizens who have watched this erosion with concern, then alarm and now a sense of resignation, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections had briefly offered a ray of hope. That was two years ago in June 2024, when a more well-knit Opposition than you see today was able to make common cause, push back credibly and stop the BJP from securing a simple majority in the Lok Sabha.

Again, just two months ago in April 2026, the same Opposition was able to foil the BJP government’s plans to push through a Delimitation Bill that threatened to dramatically undercut the representation of southern states in Parliament and undermine India’s federal compact.

In its all-too-transparent bid to concentrate power at the Centre, the BJP has also been pushing ‘One Nation, One Election’ and many other unitary variants of the same driving impulse.

The primary unitary formulation advanced by the BJP–Sangh is their foundational ideological slogan ‘Ek Desh, Ek Nishan, Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan’ (one country, one flag, one Constitution, one prime minister). This historical formulation traces back to the BJP’s predecessor, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and its founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

It has grown new tentacles in the Modi era, in the shape of One Nation, One Election (ONOE); One Nation, One Tax; One Nation, One Ration Card; One Nation, One Grid; One........

© National Herald