Congress leader Anand Sharma (centre)

NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday rejected BJP’s ‘one nation, one election’ proposal, calling it a design of the saffron party to bring “one face, one name and one ideology”.

Leading the Congress charge during the debate on Motion of Thanks to President’s address in Rajya Sabha , Anand Sharma warned BJP against “dividing the country for votes” and said “beauty of India lies in its diversity”.

“There is federal polity in the country, there is diversity. Our experience speaks that when governments have fallen and alternative ones have not been formed, mid-term polls have been held. You can’t have a forced majority, you cannot impose your decision. You cannot take away the rights of states on polls. When governments fall in states and alternative governments are not formed, will you impose President’s rule then. This won’t happen,” he said.

He, however, said Congress is willing to discuss the issue of electoral reforms. He also questioned the President’s address for mentioning only Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel and not making any reference to Jawahar Lal Nehru and B R Ambedkar. “Why are you so bitter over recognising the role of Jawaharlal Nehru who was a one of the leading persons in the freedom struggle standing firmly with Mahatma Gandhi and then the first PM of Independent India,” Sharma said. He quoted Sardar Patel and even former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to show that both had words of praise for Nehru.

