Presidential System is More Suitable to India

Scheme of the essay

Exposition: Parliamentary system has failed in India

Rising Action: The coalition government is a nail in the coffin of Parliamentary democracy

Climax:

(i) All parties agree that the system should be changed.

(ii) Even Dr. Ambedkar was in favour of it.

(iii) Minor constitutional amendments will bring the change.

(iv) The presidential system will help the nation in many ways

Falling action: The presidential system is structurally built in our constitution

Ending: It will give our nation stability and strength.

The parliamentary system of government has miserably failed in India. Right from the day we adopted it, the system could not work properly. We could not rise up to its demands. Even in the days of Nehru there was no opposition which sustains the system. Moreover, the ruling party could never poll more than forty-seven percent votes at the time of elections. So, the minority government ruled the country and the absence of a healthy opposition made it dictatorial in its work. It was nothing short of the dictatorship of the numerically strongest party in the Lok Sabha. The coalition government of today has reduced parliamentary democracy to a farce. Fourteen political parties joining hands just to come in power is a mockery of democracy itself. Such a loosely knitted government, living under the constant fear of dismissal cannot check the rampant corruption, cannot make independent decisions and cannot have a Prime Minister who has his say. The future is also bleak because there is no possibility of a single party having an absolute majority is the Lok Sabha. The only solution to this political mess is presidential form of government.

Even the most conservative intellectuals who used to believe that there was nothing wrong with the West Minister system are disillusioned by the present state of affairs. The helplessness of Prime Minister, as the leader of a conglomerate of 14 small groups, brought together only by the interest of being in forcing him to spend most of his energy in placating dissidents in his government. Above all, his real plight is the ever-hanging sword of the outside support of the Congress party, which is itself having its own problems.

Such a form of political instability is bound to have its impact on both economic and social fields. Except in agriculture due to a favourable monsoon for the eighth consecutive year, the growth rate in vital infrastructure areas like production of electricity, coal, fertilizers and steel is showing a downward trend. The Finance Minister is virtually going to the big money powers like Japan, pleading for investment in India. All these nations are concerned about India’s political instability and hence even NRI investment is hesitant.

Now, more and more people even amongst the political parties are willing to consider modifying our system and going for a Presidential-cum-Prime Ministerial form, which while maintaining Parliament and its fiscal and legislative powers, shall also give stability to the executive under a President elected with a greater democratic mandate. This may be somewhat closer to the “French system of presidential and parliamentary democracy. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was himself strongly in favour of a Presidential system, which he thought would be best for a pluralist society like India. He had pleaded for this in his memorandum presented by him as President of the Scheduled Caste Federation of India to the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in April 1947. Later he himself was made the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee and had to present the Constitution that was accepted by a majority of the Constituent Assembly.

However, it is interesting to note that with very little modification in our Constitution we can have all the advantages of a stable Presidential system while retaining the advantages of our institution of Parliament as a legislative body keeping vigilance and approving the budget of the government.

Following few modifications, Will enable us to provide a more democratic and stable government under the present constitution.

The electoral college by which the President is elected under Article 54, should be enlarged to include elected members of all elective bodies upto the village panchayats which have now been included by law as bodies that would be brought under the jurisdiction of the Election Commission. Thus, in addition to being elected by both Houses of Parliament and all legislatures of the country he will now be elected by the elected members of municipalities, corporations, Zilla Parishads and Gram Panchayats of the entire country from Kashmire to Kerala and Meghalaya to Lakshadweep. Then again as he will be elected by proportional representation system, he will have a more representative character than one acquired by the prevailing system, where today even a person representative character than one acquired by first part the post system, where today even a person representing 10 percent votes in a constituency can be elected because of absurd multiplicity of candidates, which has reduced our elections to a farce by allowing independent candidates in any number to contest elections. In fact, a parliamentary system essentially is a party system of democracy and only recognised political parties should be qualified to set up candidates. A citizen, who is keen to represent the people in legislature can join a party of his choice or even set up a party of his or her own and get it recognised. But, to allow a citizen without the backing of a political party to stand for an election is the very negation of the parliamentary system of democracy. We know what a joke it makes of a ballot paper having more than hundred names of independent candidates.

All this can be changed and the first change in the electoral law should be to allow only duly recognised political parties at the national or state levels to set up candidates. This will bring more discipline and seriousness to our parliamentary democracy. Political parties to be recognised must, apart from having certain number of memberships to qualify for being recognised as a national party and as a state or regional party, must comply with the requirements of internal democracy of well-maintained record of members, regular democratic elections and auditing of their accounts. State funding of elections of duly recognised political parties and their elections can also be considered by Parliament to be duly approved by law.

Thus, a person to get elected as a President by the entire nation’s elective members would have to be a political person, who is not only known to the people throughout the country but also enjoys the confidence and support of major political parties. He will get an electoral backing of the real majority of representatives of India and thus can be trusted to form a government, which will work for the welfare of the people according to his policy and programme at least without fear of removal by fluctuating members in the lower house, during the period for which he or she is elected. There is no danger of such a democratically elected President becoming a dictator because the Parliament will be there, not only to approve his budget every year but also to legislate and keep due vigilance on the Government through its Standing Committees. The power of impeachment can also continue.

Article-74 will have to be amended so as not to make the advice of the Council of Ministers binding on the President. Article-75 will have to be amended to require appointment of the Prime Minister and other Ministers by the President without the advice of the Prime Minister.

Article-75 sub-clause (3) shall have to be deleted or suitably amended so as to make the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the entire Parliament as defined in Article 79, which includes both Houses and the President and it should be provided that a vote only by two thirds membership of no-confidence. both the Houses separately passed, can alone pass a vote of

With these few amendments India can switch over to the Presidential system without much difficulty or change in the basic structure. In fact, a proper and plain reading of the Constitution’s Part V will show that the Presidential system has been structurally built in the Constitution by our founding fathers and we can and should bring about a smooth and easy transformation without further delay. This is necessary not only to save the essential features of the parliamentary system but to make our executive head have a real democratic mandate of all elected representatives of India’s democratic institutions up to the last village panchayat. This modification will also give our nation stability and strength to implement people-oriented programmes and policies with vigour and speed essential in this highly competitive world.