Pranab pitches for simultaneous elections

The government’s objective was the happiness of people and not the glory of the rulers, President Pranab Mukherjee said in his Republic Day eve address in which he pitched for simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

In the customary address to the nation, the President on Wednesday said one of his predecessors left a framed note which read, “The objective of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or races but the happiness of the common man.”

That happiness, he said, should be the touchstone of public policy as it is “equally the outcome of economic and non-economic parameters”.

The note, said sources, was left by late APJ Abdul Kalam.

India’s pluralism and diversity were its greatest strength, Mukherjee said. “Our tradition has always celebrated the argumentative Indian not the intolerant Indian.”

He expressed hope cashless transactions would bring in transparency. Though demonetisation “immobilised” black money and corruption, it “may have led to temporary slowdown of economic activity”.

Mukherjee, whose term ends in July, also made a case for electoral reforms.

“The time is also ripe for a constructive debate on electoral reforms and a return to the practice of the early decades after independence when elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies were held simultaneously,” he said.