Ramblings and Government Bashing

Firstly on CBI- the superintendance on corruption cases lie with CVC. CBI was started as Delhi Special Police during world war 2 to prevent corruption in government procurement at that time since officials had a lot of discretion and were using it to make a lot of money for themselves. It was established under the Viceroy's control to protect the queen's money, since it was the British government in India at that time, and this money was being protected from Indians misusing it.It was truly an independent authority at that time since it was attached to an entity that wanted to prevent swindling of money and not under an authority which was embezzling money. All the real powers of the Viceroy went to the Prime Minister in some, the Viceregal Palace but became the Presidential residence and he also became head of the state. So, keeping the CBI under Prime Minister who actually heads the government against which there are charges of corruption simply because of a historical oversight while transferring power is unreasonable.

Article 75 of the Constitution of India says, inter alia, that the council of ministers shall be collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. This collective responsibility is the bedrock of Parliamentary democracy and it means that whatever the internal differences between the council of ministers, they should act as one and in one voice under the leadership of the Prime Minister. The Council of Ministers are appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister and it says nothing about coalition compulsions or the need to satisfy the party leader of a coalition member and so the acts of the coalition party's minister is also an action of the Cabinet which it cannot dismiss or distance itself from in Parliament. Swiftly correcting any mistake by removing the minister and reversing the decisions is essential if the minister has gone against the Council Of Minister's judgement or has acted unilaterally. This is to enforce decisions within the cabinet and is the principle of individual responsibility. This also enforces discipline and collective decision making. These are basic principles of parliamentary democracy and the current government has observed these principles only in breach- hiding behind coalision dharma, a very childish mastermind of mischief excuse of "he did it, I didn't know anything about" used by the squeeky clean goody goody boy in class and bursts of activity to prove it has life while manipulating parliamentary politics by forcing abstentions are all an insult to democracy

Sometime in early 2011(during the debate on 2G I think), Manmohan Singh had made a statement that the people had given them a mandate and so they can continue with the government. In India, the parliament is not supreme, the government is not supreme but it is the constitution that is Supreme. Parliament cannot make amendments that alter basic structure of the constitution and laws that take away fundamental rights or goes against the constitution. Parliament that has the mandate of the people there are not supreme and the government has to be responsible to the Lok Sabha. Institutions like the CAG and Supreme court are meant to uphold the constitution and act as checks against transgressions by the executive. So clamouring about people's mandate is a sad excuse- it was a people's government that imposed emergency and made a mockery of the same mandate.



The trigger for this post is this http://www.indianexpress.com/news/phantom-democracy/1113222/0 and some ideas that have been lying around in my mind.