PRESIDENTIAL DISCRETION
Debtoru Chatterjee
Oxford University Press
312 pages; Rs 995
As brief histories go, this is one of the best that I have ever read in recent years. The author's intent is to explain, to even the lay but intelligent reader, just what it is that we can expect of our President.
He succeeds marvellously. His message is clear: The President is not a rubber stamp.
The book is smoothly written, the topics are logically selected, the discussion is uncluttered and, by going President-wise in the Appendix, the author has covered the terrain superbly. It is a must read for all educated Indians and one hopes that Indian language editions will be published soon.
The problem is an old one: If you follow the British model of constitutional government, in which there is a head of state and a head of government, who is the real boss? Is the former bound to follow the advice of the latter or, if and when the occasion demands, can he or she tell the Prime Minister and the council of ministers to take a walk?
Debtoru Chatterjee, who is remarkably silent about himself - the jacket blurb merely describes him as a civil servant - says that the President of India has discretionary power, which the British King or Queen doesn't. This is because the British sovereign simply doesn't have to face the sort of problems that an Indian president has to solve.
The objective of this book, says Mr Chatterjee, "is to bring out the extent of discretionary power of the President, not the limitation on a power which is more like a right and is enshrined in the Constitution." He does a great job of it.
As might be expected, the author has referred to scores of authorities and opinions. The latter started coming almost as soon as the Constitution was adopted, starting with Rajendra Prasad, India's first President.
They have kept coming since then - even after the Constitution was amended during the Emergency to say that the President was bound by the advice of the council of ministers. Mr Chatterjee's riposte is that the President receives advice from several sources.
The Election Commission is one of these sources, at least during elections. He says the Election Commission "replaces the Cabinet" in tendering vital advice.
There is, however, one issue that the author could have discussed more fully: The head of state wears two hats. One is legal-constitutional; the other is political.
One can cry oneself hoarse saying that the second role was never envisaged. That may well be true. But the fact remains that the job has a strong political aspect to it. How a President discharges this role depends on a lot of things, not the least of which is his or her conscience and ego.
Mr Chatterjee has included a long appendix that covers all the Presidents from 1950 to 1987. The appendix makes for great reading.
The last time a President came close to playing politics was in 1987 when Zail Singh was in office. He threatened Rajiv Gandhi, who had 415 seats in the Lok Sabha, in a manner no President had done before or has since then.
Mr Chatterjee glosses over that episode but has two other equally interesting ones to tell. One is about Zail Singh's reservations and responses to Operation Blue Star and the other is about his deciding to appoint Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister without following the correct procedure.
Blue Star was the name given to the army action against Sikh terrorists who were holed up in the Golden Temple. Obviously, as a Sikh, Zail Singh was deeply unhappy about it and cautioned Indira Gandhi against it. But she ignored him with terrible consequences for both her and the country.
After she had been shot by her own Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984, Zail Singh decided that her son was suited to succeed her. He didn't wait for the Congress Parliamentary Party to send up Rajiv's name.
He just went ahead and swore him in as Prime Minister, something that is unthinkable in Britain, says Mr Chatterjee. Nothing comes anywhere close as far as a political role goes. Mr Chatterjee doesn't say so, which is a pity.
Another notable incident was when R Venkataraman was President. Rajiv Gandhi, who could be very silly, didn't dissolve the eighth Lok Sabha even after the elections had been announced and were, indeed, underway. The President had to remind him and the needful was done right away.
The book narrates many such episodes that show how fraught the relationship between the Prime Minister and the President can become. It also shows how well we have worked our Constitution.
Debtoru Chatterjee
Oxford University Press
312 pages; Rs 995
As brief histories go, this is one of the best that I have ever read in recent years. The author's intent is to explain, to even the lay but intelligent reader, just what it is that we can expect of our President.
Also Read
He succeeds marvellously. His message is clear: The President is not a rubber stamp.
The book is smoothly written, the topics are logically selected, the discussion is uncluttered and, by going President-wise in the Appendix, the author has covered the terrain superbly. It is a must read for all educated Indians and one hopes that Indian language editions will be published soon.
The problem is an old one: If you follow the British model of constitutional government, in which there is a head of state and a head of government, who is the real boss? Is the former bound to follow the advice of the latter or, if and when the occasion demands, can he or she tell the Prime Minister and the council of ministers to take a walk?
Debtoru Chatterjee, who is remarkably silent about himself - the jacket blurb merely describes him as a civil servant - says that the President of India has discretionary power, which the British King or Queen doesn't. This is because the British sovereign simply doesn't have to face the sort of problems that an Indian president has to solve.
The objective of this book, says Mr Chatterjee, "is to bring out the extent of discretionary power of the President, not the limitation on a power which is more like a right and is enshrined in the Constitution." He does a great job of it.
As might be expected, the author has referred to scores of authorities and opinions. The latter started coming almost as soon as the Constitution was adopted, starting with Rajendra Prasad, India's first President.
They have kept coming since then - even after the Constitution was amended during the Emergency to say that the President was bound by the advice of the council of ministers. Mr Chatterjee's riposte is that the President receives advice from several sources.
The Election Commission is one of these sources, at least during elections. He says the Election Commission "replaces the Cabinet" in tendering vital advice.
There is, however, one issue that the author could have discussed more fully: The head of state wears two hats. One is legal-constitutional; the other is political.
One can cry oneself hoarse saying that the second role was never envisaged. That may well be true. But the fact remains that the job has a strong political aspect to it. How a President discharges this role depends on a lot of things, not the least of which is his or her conscience and ego.
Mr Chatterjee has included a long appendix that covers all the Presidents from 1950 to 1987. The appendix makes for great reading.
The last time a President came close to playing politics was in 1987 when Zail Singh was in office. He threatened Rajiv Gandhi, who had 415 seats in the Lok Sabha, in a manner no President had done before or has since then.
Mr Chatterjee glosses over that episode but has two other equally interesting ones to tell. One is about Zail Singh's reservations and responses to Operation Blue Star and the other is about his deciding to appoint Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister without following the correct procedure.
Blue Star was the name given to the army action against Sikh terrorists who were holed up in the Golden Temple. Obviously, as a Sikh, Zail Singh was deeply unhappy about it and cautioned Indira Gandhi against it. But she ignored him with terrible consequences for both her and the country.
After she had been shot by her own Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984, Zail Singh decided that her son was suited to succeed her. He didn't wait for the Congress Parliamentary Party to send up Rajiv's name.
He just went ahead and swore him in as Prime Minister, something that is unthinkable in Britain, says Mr Chatterjee. Nothing comes anywhere close as far as a political role goes. Mr Chatterjee doesn't say so, which is a pity.
Another notable incident was when R Venkataraman was President. Rajiv Gandhi, who could be very silly, didn't dissolve the eighth Lok Sabha even after the elections had been announced and were, indeed, underway. The President had to remind him and the needful was done right away.
The book narrates many such episodes that show how fraught the relationship between the Prime Minister and the President can become. It also shows how well we have worked our Constitution.