The Prime Minister is right. It is time to debate simultaneous elections

Three changes that can help us achieve the difficult goal of simultaneous polls for Parliament and state assemblies

The prime minister recently said the time has come to seriously debate simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies because at present India is perpetually in election mode. This, he said, hampers economic reform.

But how do you get two billion voters to vote if not simultaneously then within a period of, say, 12 weeks, a billion each for the two sets of elections? Can you even begin to imagine the logistical and counting difficulties? The Election Commission will tell you about these in great administrative detail.

On the other hand, the objections can be placed in the context of