President as Constitutional head of state in a democracy

The UPA and NDA have announced their candidates for president’s election. Therefore, election is unavoidable and it is also going to be a show of strength between the two major alliances.  The president of India is the Constitutional head and as such he represents the country but doesn’t govern.  The well-known professor of political science, Thomas Srinivasan, who later became a member of the Rajya Sabha, used to describe the office of the President in India and the Sovereign’s power in England, as ‘fifth wheel of a coach, a decorated hollow and a magnificent zero’. The reason for saying this is to highlight the fact that real power lies with the Prime Minister and his cabinet, in a parliamentary form of government.  

Once, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, thundered on the floors of the Lok Sabha claiming his powers as supreme over the powers of the President of India.  He said that the President is indirectly elected, whereas the PM is directly elected. Barring Deve Gowda and Dr. Manmohan Singh, all other Prime Ministers contested for a Lok Sabha seat and were elected to the Lower House.  There is a well established tradition in England that the PM comes only from the House of Commons, which means he/she gets elected directly by people.  Nehru wanted to reiterate the point that the President is not elected directly, whereas the PM is directly elected by the people and he demonstrated the power of the directly elected over the indirectly elected one. 

As the Constitutional head, the President performs his duty and his discretionary powers are limited.  There are also instances of the NDA government at the helm under the UPA-nominated President (KR Narayanan as UPA nominated President and Atal Bihari Vajpayee as NDA Prime Minister), and UPA government under NDA-nominated President (Dr APJ Abdul Kalam as NDA nominated President and Dr Manmohan Singh as UPA PM) Now,  we have Narendhra Modi as NDA PM from May 2014, and Pranab Mukherjee as UPA nominated President.   Presidents KR Narayanan, Abdul Kalam and Pranab Muherjee did not have any serious problems with the governments which did not nominate them.  This establishes the role of the President as Constitutional head, who rises above politics and unites all the parties and is a patient listener to all view points.     

All the presidents have completed their term of office of five years, except two (Zakir Hussain and Fakruddin Ali Ahmad). Dr. Rajendra Prasad completed his two terms.  Even under the governments that did not nominate them, the Presidents did not have any serious issues with the government.  The Indian political system with the President as head of the State has evolved a model, wherein the President doesn’t resign when the government nominated him is voted out of power. 

On the other hand, all the Presidents have completed the term of office.  This is a new political system evolved in our history and by tradition. This will definitely strengthen the democracy.

 — The writer is a political analyst