Is India, still a democratic Republic?

Constitutionally, India is a democratic Republic. The Government, is, of the people, by the people and for the people. None is supreme, except the people and the will of the people. 

The Government, is represented by the Council of Ministers (group of Cabinet Ministers) and the Prime Minister is its ceremonial Head. 

The conjoint reading of Article-74 and 78 of the Constitution of India clearly states that, the Council of Ministers is supreme and the President of India shall act in accordance with the advice tendered by the Council of Ministers through its head, the Prime Minister. 

The provision of law, also makes it clear that, the Prime Minister is only the head of the Council of Ministers and the decisions of Cabinet are always supreme, final and binding on Prime Minister and also on the President of India.  

The role and responsibility of the Prime Minister, under the Constitution of India, thus, is that of a postman, just to  convey the advices / decisions of the Council of Ministers to the President of India and also to simply follow the same through execution and implementation. Article-74 and 78 of the Constitution of India read as under ;

"Article-74 : Council of Ministers to aid and advise President.

1[(1) There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice:]

2[Provided that the President may require the Council of Ministers to reconsider such advice, either generally or otherwise, and the President shall act in accordance with the advice tendered after such reconsideration.]

(2) The question whether any, and if so what, advice was tendered by Ministers to the President shall not be inquired into in any court.

Article-78 : Duties of Prime Minister as respects the furnishing of information to the President, etc.

It shall be the duty of the Prime Minister-

(a) To communicate to the President all decisions of the Council of Ministers relating to the administration of the affairs of the Union and proposals for legislation;

(b) To furnish such information relating to the administration of the affairs of the Union and proposals for legislation as the President may call for; and

(c) If the President so requires, to submit for the consideration of the Council of Ministers any matter on which a decision has been taken by a Minister but which has not been considered by the Council."

And, now, in the present parliamentary democracy, the situation seems to have  been changed, rather reversed. The Prime Minister is acting supreme, he appears to be a decision maker and his decisions appear to be final and binding on the Council of Ministers and also on the President of India. 

The Council of Ministers, have virtually become insignificant, irrelevant, non-existent and seemingly lost all power and liberty to have any say boldly, without fear or favour of the Prime Minister. The Council of Ministers are seemingly under the mercy, parole, and control of the Prime Minister. The decisions of the Prime Minister are seemingly imposed on the Council of Ministers for the sake of legal formality for approval and many Cabinet Ministers are even today are unseen, unheard of, and some are even unknown in public domain, and, the same is fate about their presence and their independent opinions in any cabinet meetings, if they had ever participated and were vocal on their views and stands, without fear or favour. Strangely, dictatorship has all these essential requisites within its folds. 

Now, with the ongoing developments in India, can we still within the framework of the Constitution of India, be able to consider India as a democratic Republic or the one ruled through dictatorship ? 

Whether the present Government, be termed as, of the people, by the people and for the people, especially when the Council of Ministers representing the people have almost become irrelevant and non-existent before the Prime Minister? 

Whether, now, the Prime Minister is Supreme, and, the people and their will through the Council of Ministers has lost its Supremacy ? 

Whether the Government has any Regards and respect for the Constitutional principles and Constitutional morality? 

Whether, the Constitutional principles and Constitutional morality, are obstacles for the the government to push its hidden agenda against democracy ?  And, is that the reason, they are vocal on changing the Constitution of India itself ? 

And, to answer this, entire facts are infront of us and it is the right time to self-analyse and answer ourselves. Better late than never. 

Chronology Samjho aur Atmanirbhar bano. Varna, zindagi bhar bajate rahoge taali aur ghanti. 

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An answer to, who is an alternative to Modi ?

AN  ANSWER  TO  WHO  IS  AN  ALTERNATIVE  TO  MODI ?

It is often said in sports, 'never underestimate any player, unless he is given an opportunity to play on the pitch'. And, the politics is a game too.

Democracy is a very beautiful concept. It often reminds us that, the government be of the people, by the people, for the people, and, it shall not perish from the earth. Rulers choosen by the people may just come and go, but the ultimate power of the people never dies. The will and satisfaction of people is final and supreme in democracy, and, certainly not the will and satisfaction of the rulers choosen by the people. 

Till 9th June 1964, none expected that a mild-mannered and soft spoken socialist viz.,Sri.  Lal Bahadur Shastri would be nominated for the Office of the Prime Minister of India by the then Congress Party President Sri. K.Kamaraj, upon the death of Sri. Jawaharlal Nehru on 27th May, 1964. In his first broadcast as the Prime Minister on 11th June, 1964, Sri. Shastri  had stated,

'There comes a time in the life of every Nation when it stands at the crossroads of history and must choose which way to go. But, for us, there need be no difficulty or hesitation, no looking to right or left. Our way is straight and clear, the building up of a socialist democracy at home with freedom and prosperity for all, maintenance of world peace and friendship with all nations'.

Sri. Shastri promoted White Revolution, a nationwide campaign to increase the production and supply of milk by supporting the milk producers and underlined the need to boost India's food production by promoting the Green Revolution in India in 1965. He led the country during the Indo-Pak War in 1965 with his popular slogan 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan' and the war formally ended with Tashkent agreement on 10th January 1966, where he passed away the following day. He was posthumously awarded with the Bharat Ratna.

Similarly, till 21st June 1991, many Indians were unheard of the name Sri. P.V. Narasimha Rao, who was sworn in as the 9th Prime Minister of India. And, till 16th May 1996, on which date he demited the PMO, none could even imagine his extra-ordinary skill of administration, major economic transformation and his ability to steer economic and political legislation through the Parliament, even at a time when he had a minority government. His term as a Prime Minister of India was an eventful one in India's history making paradigm shift from the traditional phenomenon of industrializing, economic model of previous modules. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam described Rao as 'a patriotic Statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system'. Dr. Kalam acknowledged that, Sri. Rao in fact asked him to get ready for Nuclear Test in 1996, but not carried out as the government at centre changed in general election of 1996 and later was conducted by Sri. Vajpayee led NDA government and Sri. Rao had even briefed Sri. Vajpayee on his nuclear plans.

Also, surprisingly, the then BJP President Sri. L.K. Advani during a BJP Conference held at Mumbai in November 1995, declared not-so-popular Sri. Vajpayee as the Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate in the forthcoming elections, even Sri. Vajpayee himself was reportedly shocked and unhappy with announcement. The BJP became the single largest party in Parliament in the 1996 - General Elections and Sri. Vajpayee became the Prime Minister of India. Sri. Vajpayee, subsequently served India three terms as a Prime Minister, first for term of 13 days in 1996, then for a term of 13 months from 1998 to 1999, thirdly for a full term from 1999 to 2004 proving himself as the best ever Indian Dignified Politician, Statesmen and a Poet having served the office of the Prime Minister of India other than Indian National Congress to have served for full 5 years term in office.

Likewise, till 22nd May 2004, none on this planet had even remotedly  thought that, an academician, economist, technocrat by name Dr. Manmohan Singh would be declared as the Prime Minister of India by UPA. It was a surprise not only for the entire world, but also for Dr.Manmohan Singh personally. By 26th May 2014, he had already freed India from the Licence Raj and slow economic growth. And, he has liberalised the Indian economy, to speed up development dramatically and during his term as the Prime Minister, Dr.Singh continued to encourage growth in the Indian market, successfully led the growth of an Indian economy with 8-9% economic growth rate and achieved its highest GDP growth rate of 9%, and, in his leadership, he proved India as the second fastest growing major economy in the world. 

Presently, it is quite common of every political party propagating the citizens that, firstly-they care the citizens most, secondly-they have the world's best manifesto and thirdly-they have the best leader with them, who is un-matchable, un-comparable and who can bring Heaven straight to Earth in no time. And, no parties are exceptions to this manner of hypothetical exaggerated propaganda (jumla). Interestingly, BJP, now a days  is much ahead than other parties in such kind of hypothetical exaggerated propagation as for Sri. Modi, Sri. Amit Shah, Sri. Adityanath Yogi, Sri. Yeddyurappa and many more, the list just goes on, endlessly. A remarkable  point to be noted here, is, insofar as Sri. Vajpayee, Sri. L.K.Advani, Sri. Murli Manohar Joshi, who neither wanted any hypothetical exaggerated propagation nor appreciated it anytime, since they were known by their originality, truthfulness and ethics and were against any such hypothetical exaggerated propagation.

The governments, today, are being formed only through hypothetical exaggerated propaganda (jumla). And, such political parties and so called their ‘best leaders’ having been given the opportunity to serve the nation, the voters get an opportunity to test and realise, whether those were only 'the propaganda for winning the elections' or 'what was propagated was a reality' , or 'only a dream shown which is far from reality'.

Generally speaking, those in the business of marketing clearly understand that, the best  and easiest way of marketing a brand or a product, is to make it popular somehow by spreading the name and news, truthful or otherwise. Else, they will not be able to seek the attention of the customers to attract, convince / lure them to sell their  product in the market. That is how the marketing skills are meant for and are working, by not being truthful always, but being attractive to the customers, convincing and being able to make / lure them to purchase the product, somehow. There are genuine and ethical marketing companies even which promote only truthful information, and, there are some, which are least bothered about truthful and ethical marketing to sell product and are only for making money. Analogous is the position with political parties, its leaders and party manifesto.

We have been witnessing since 2014 that, through meticulously designed media campaign and the magic of camera capturing, every act of Sri. Modi is dramaturgical performance. Sri. Modi is being projected as the best Prime Minister India has ever seen, a refreshing departure from all the earlier Prime Ministers like Sri.  Nehru, Sri. Lal Bahadur Shastri, Smt. Indira Gandhi, Sri.  P.V. Narasimha Rao, Sri.  Atal Bihari Vajapayee, Dr. Manmohan Singh. 

The deeper dissection shockingly emanates it from two sources (a) the colonisation of the life-word by the market and (b) the emergent culture of narcissism. It is therefore, not surprising that the fancy and misdirected MBA- Marketing graduates are often hired by the political establishments to project their leader as a 'brand' filled with all sorts of heroic qualities.

 Growing a business or a political party is not easy. First, one need to have a viable idea of marketing. Then, from there, one need to discover a profitable niche, define the target demographic of winning elections and have something of value to sell them. Building business or political parties with no marketing, is burdensome. And, without the right marketing strategies, to fuel its growth, churning a profit and staying afloat is virtually impossible. So only, they tend to project their leader as the only one with heroic qualities of James Bond / Superman / Spiderman / Batman / Robinhood and many more.

Democracy,  if becomes a sacrosanct concept that, even the harshest dictatorship like Korea and India, start calling themselves a democracy, then the question may emerge as to, what really is democracy ? 

The freedom fighters who died for the cause of liberating India and the Constitution makers who strived for democracy in India, knew the power of people and so they empowered people, than the rulers. In democracy, the rulers be able to rule, only till they enjoy the will, confidence and satisfaction of the people. The rulers are not to be confused themselves as permanent to their office. 

With very few illustrations as above, post-independence history clearly concludes that, India is not a barren-land striving for intellectuals, talented administrators, academicians, economists, scientists, politicians and statesman. Given the opportunity, many unheard, unseen talented personalities have proved their worth and credibility and led India to unimaginable heights.

Not necessarily every knowledgeable and talented personalities be popular figures, to get a chance, to prove their worth and credibility and to lead the Country. And, their popularity is immaterial, to prove their worthiness and credibility to lead the Country. What is required to lead the country, is, only the knowledge, administrative talent and skill, ability to lead the country in a systematic developmental path with no harm to anyone. And, those who lack these qualities and those who failed to prove their knowledge, worth and credibility in leading the country despite sufficient opportunities to lead, are unworthy to lead the country even if enjoying a popular government. 

With this, I summarise that, India is loaded with several alternatives given a chance to lead the country, and, there is absolutely no need to be insecure, or, to be dependent on any individual who is counted among failures, motor-mouths and as an illusory  impractical role-model.

And, those still having a question for themselves and for others as to 'who is an alternative to Modi’, need to read the post-Independence history of India again and again, till they find complete answer by themselves.

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