Monday, October 15, 2012

Suggestion: Impartial Investigation


In India, President is the head of republic. But since India is a democratic nation and the President is not directly elected by the people of India, he is not the supreme leader, though he is the formal head of legislative, judiciary and executive.
Rashtrapati Bhawan
Presidential Standard of India




President is the commander-in-chief of Indian Armed Forces and as we know the person who controls army is the omnipotent. But is that the case with our President? The answer is no. He appoints the chief of Army, Air-Force and Navy and can declare a war and conclude peace, subject to consultation with Parliament, the apex governing body of democratic of India. All international treaties and agreements are done on his behalf by the head of the party who enjoys majority in parliament. All money bill originates in parliament on his recommendation, he can declare emergency and dissolve any federal government given the consent of parliament. The 42nd amendment of the constitution has made it obligatory on the part of president to accept the advice of council of ministers. So in short he does everything in the country but can't do anything really without consultation with the parliament.

Whats the problem?

Back in 1946 when Indian constituent assembly started drafting constitution they wanted to give all power to common street people. Since each and every member[1] of the parliament is chosen by the people and from among the people, they had hardly doubted that people will lose faith in them. It was supposed that losing faith in parliament is like losing faith in self. So they vested all power in parliament and made it an apex governing body. But they kept the judiciary independent of legislative to have impartial judgement even on the matters that involves government. Now what is the case? Judiciary is independent but the investigative agencies on whose findings the court will give its verdict is in the hand of government.

Imagine the fate of a university where grading copies and declaring results is in the hand of professors but examination control committee which conduct exams is headed by student body.  

Recent case: A Hindi news channel Aaj Tak conducted a sting operation on the working of Dr. Zakir Hussain Memorial trust and came up with irregularities of INR 71 lakh which was endowed to trust to conduct a camp for differently-abled people, but that camp never happened. This trust is run by wife of Mr. Salman Khurshid, Union law minister of Govt. of India. Social Activist Mr Arvind kejriwal along with many supposedly beneficiaries from this camp wanted to meet Prime Minister to complain but they all were jailed. Mr Salman Khurshid came live on national TV and bashed all the protesters along with TV which conducted sting and heard saying "I will not give answer to anyone on streets". He also challenged to litigate the controversy to court.

Now, the aforesaid trust is in UP so the case will be between UP state government and trust run by family of union law minister. Chief minister of UP is Mr Akhilesh Yadav of samajwadi party and a case against his father Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav for disproportionate assets is pending in supreme court which will be investigated by CBI(investigative agency under govt.). So do we need Sherlock Holmes to figure out what will happen? Can we overlook the 'quid pro quo' case here? This wouldn't be the first time for central government to avail CBI.

Solution:  

Make the post of President apolitical. which can only be done by changing the way president is elected and not by giving resignation from primary membership of party after filling nomination for president. Anyway common people is not voting for president directly don't let MP's and MLA's vote either. I believe that the President should have an idea about the functioning of government and he should not be completely aloof of governance. So lets make it a bureaucratic post like a chief election commissioner of India or chief justice of supreme court.  Only all the IAS rank officers, few elite universities professors, judges of courts and high court will vote and elect the President. So will be the election procedure for governors for states.
All investigative agencies should be under President and Governors of states  and they don't need to consult government for any kind of investigation. Now a government or a "street person" anyone can knock the door of president for impartial investigation against each other. Let all other power of the President as it is. Even presidential judicial power like pardon, reprieve,remission, respite would now make some sense.


Give the man at least something so that  he wouldn't find it satirical when someone says His Excellency.   




      
Location: IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

1 comment:

  1. Very well said ... This one post of yours i have read several times as it carries a vision..

    Even i don't understand the point of selecting The President of India from a political party...He has limited powers but these powers also matter..His consent required for introducing money bill .. He possess pardoning power..Power to make appointments to constitutional bodies...He enjoys veto power , without his consent no bill can become law...

    But when this position is given to a person belonging to a political party then they can easily exploit it to their advantage and make things run according to their wishes..

    I believe President should be not be elected from a political party rather than from a body of intellectuals , active citizens,social workers .. :)

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