Our Parliament —Union Legislature (Social And Political Life -III).

 We have already studied that India is a democratic country. A democratic country is one in which it's citizens participate in the decision - making process of the government. It is also characterised social, political and economic equality among citizens. We have adopted parliamentary System of governance.

Types of Democratic Governments —

      Democratic Governments can be divided into the following two types:

Parliamentary Form of Government —

   In a parliamentary form of government, the parliament is the supreme and it represents the people. The Legislature in the centre is called the parliament or the sansad. For example, India has a parliamentary form of government.

Parliament House 

In this system, the prime minister is the real head of the government. He/she is the leader of the majority party in the parliament. The prime Minister choose the ministers from among the party to form the Council of Ministers. The President is the nominal head of the state. People do not directly elect the president. The Executive or the Council of Ministers is a part of Legislature or the Parliament. This is because, all of them are also the members of the Parliament. In this way, there is proper co-ordination between the Legislature and the executive. The Parliament has full control over the government. If the Prime Minister loses the majority in the Parliament, the government has to resign.

Presidential Form of Government —

    In this system of government, the President is both the real and nominal head of the state. There is no Prime Minister in the Presidential Form of Government. The President is directly elected by the people. He/she is not responsible to the Legislature. That is, the Parliament has no control over the President because he/she can not easily be removed during his/her tenure. United States of America (USA) is an example of Presidential Form of Government.

The President of United States of America 

Need For Parliamentary Form of Government —

Under the British rule, the people of India lived in fear of the government. People did not agree with many of the government's decisions. But, they had to follow them. If they tried to criticise these decisions, they faced grave consequences. The nationalist Freedom movement changed this situation. The nationalist began to criticise the British government. They felt that the government had to be sensitive to people's needs and demands. That is why, they supported the idea that all adults have a right to vote.

India chose a parliamentary form of government for the following reasons :

• This form of government is a true representative of the people. In this system, the government is responsible to the people through their representatives. However, this is not so in the presidential Form of Government. In a parliamentary System, the Parliament enables citizens of India to participate in decision - making and control the government.
• Our leaders were already familiar with the British Parliamentary system.
• In such a government, a distinction is drawn between the head of state and the head of government. The head of the state may be a monarch or Republican or an elected person. He/she is only the nominal head and performs only advice of the head of government.
• In a parliamentary System, the government is subject to daily scrutiny of people through its representatives it failed to deliver the goods.
• The Prime Minister is the real head of the state. He/she has to maintain a majority in the House of the people either singly or in combination with other political parties. The Prime Minister and Council of Ministers are also collectively responsible to the same house.
• In order to avoid conflicts between the Executive and the Legislature, the members of the Constituent Assembly opted for a parliamentary form of government.

The Parliament —

       The law-making body at the centre is called the parliament. The parliament, in our country, has immense powers because it is the respresentative of the people.

Composition of The Parliament—

     The President, the Lok sabha and the Rajya Sabha form the Parliament in India. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are the two houses of the Parliament.

The Lok Sabha —

    The lower house of the Parliament is called the Lok Sabha or the House of the people. It is called so, because it consists of members who are directly elected by the people.

The Lok Sabha 

Composition –

    The maximum number of members in the Lok Sabha can be 552, Out of these, the maximum 530 are elected from different states and 20 from union territories. At present, the total strength of the Lok Sabha is 545. Of these, 543 are elected and 2 are nominated by the President. Each state and union territory is divided into various constituencies. Each constituency elects one member for the Lok Sabha. In addition, the President of India can nominate two members belonging to the Anglo-Indian community if it doesn't have adequate representation in the Lok Sabha.

Qualifications for its Members –

   In order to be elected as a member of the Lok Sabha, a person must have the following qualifications :

• He /she must be a citizen of India.
• He/she should not be less than 25 years of age.
• He/she should not be mentally unsound or a declared insolvent.
• He/she should not be a proclaimed offender.
• His/her name should be in the electoral roll in any part of the country.

Election Procedure –

    The whole country is divided into constituencies. A constituency is a territorial area from which a candidate is elected. There is one representative elected from each constituency. All the citizens of India who have attained the age of 18 years and above have a right to vote. India has universal adult franchise which means that every adult has a right of franchise i.e., right to vote. Votes are cast on the basis of a secret ballot.

The Election Commission of India 

Election Officials carrying Electronic Voting Machines EVMs on elephants at a village near Guwahati 

That is, when a voter cast his/her vote, nobody can know in whose favour he/she has given his/her vote. From 2004 general elections, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are used for voting. In electronics voting, one has to just press the button against the name of the candidate of his/her choice and the vote is cast.

An Woman casting vote through EVM

Term –

    The term of the Lok Sabha is 5 years from the date of its first meeting. This term can be extended by one year at the time of emergency. But, it can not be extended beyond 6 months after the emergency ends. The Lok Sabha can be dissolved even before it's full term of 5 years.

Presiding Officers –

     The members of the Lok Sabha elect a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker from among themselves. The Speaker presides over the sessions of the Lok Sabha. He/she keeps the House in order. He/she may be a member of any political party, but once elected, he/she has to conduct his/her business impartially. At present, Sumitra Mahajan of the BJP is the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. In the absence of the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker presides over the sessions.

The Rajya Sabha —

      The Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the parliament. It is also called the Council of States. The States participate in the Legislative activity at the centre through this house.

The Rajya Sabha 

Composition –

      The maximum number of members of the Rajya Sabha can be 250. Out of these, 238 are representatives of states and union Territories and 12 are nominated by the president of India. The nominated members are well - know in the fields of literature, science, art and social service. At present, Rajya Sabha has 245 seats. Out of these, 233 members represent the states and union territories and 12 members are nominated by the President.

             In order to give adequate representation to the historically marginalised communities, some seats are reserved in the Parliament for SCs and STs.

Qualifications for its Members –

     To become a member of the Rajya Sabha, a person should have the following qualifications:

• The person must be a citizen of India.
• He/she should not be less than 30 years of age.
• He/she should not be a proclaimed offender.
• He/she should not hold any office of profit under the government.
• He/she should not be a bankrupt or mentally unsound.
• His/her name should be in the voter list of the state from which he/she is seeking election.

Election Procedure –

     Election to the Rajya Sabha are indirect. The members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by the members of Legislative assemblies of the states. The representatives of the union territories where there are no assemblies, are elected by special electoral provisions. In addition, 12 members are nominated by the President. 

Term –

     The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body. It can not be dissolved. One third of its members retire after every two years. Every members has a 6 years term.

Presiding Officers –

     The vice-president of India is the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The members of Rajya Sabha also elect a Deputy Chairman from amongst themselves.

The President —

       A bill that is passed by both houses of the Parliament can become a law only when the President of India gives his assent to it. In other words, no bill can become a law without the President's signature.

Rashtrapati Bhavan 

Functions of the Parliament —

       The Parliament plays many significant roles in our country :

Select the Executive —

       To select the Executive government from among themselves is an important function of the members of the Lok Sabha. The excecutive is a group of persons who work together to implement the laws made by the Parliament. The Lok Sabha results show total number of MPs (Members of Parliament) belonging to each political party. To form a government, a political party must have a majority of MPs in the Lok Sabha. For example, as we know, the present Lok Sabha has 545 MPs . To have a majority, a party should have at least 273 (above half the total number of seats) members. The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority or ruling party in the Lok Sabha. He/she further selects ministers from among the MPs who belong to his/her party to work with him to implement decisions passed in the Parliament. These ministers take charge of various Government ministeries such as Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs etc. The largest among the parties that oppose the ruling party, is called the opposition party.

                  At times, no political party gets a majority in the Lok Sabha. In such a case, different political parties of similar concerns make a temporary alliance to form the government. Such type of government is known as a coalition government. In other words, a coalition government refers to an alliance formed by political parties after elections when no party is able to get adequate seats to form the government.

Control and Guide the Government –

      The Parliament excercise Control over the ministers and their work through various means such as questions. The Parliament, while in session, begins with a question hour. A member of Parliament can ask questions from any Minister about his departments. Through these questions the members keep a check on the functioning of various departments. By asking questions, the government is alerted to its shortcomings. The Prime Minister and his ministers are responsible to the Parliament for their work. The Lok Sabha can remove them by passing a no-confidence motion against them.

Control over Government's Finance –

    The Parliament controls the income and expenditure of the government. The government receives money through various welfare programmes for the people. The income and expenditure are shown in the budget that is prepared every year by the government. This budget is approved by the Parliament. Thus, without the Parliament's sanction, the government can neither impose any tax nor can spend any amount.

Provide Information to the people and the Government —

      Through questions, MPs provide information to the people about the working of the government. The government also knows the opinion of the people through their representatives in the Parliament. The government gets valuable feedback through members of the Parliament.

Remove High Officials —

      The Parliament can impeach and remove the President of India and the Vice-president of India. It can also recommend the removal of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.

Amend the Constitution —

     The Parliament can amend the Constitution of India. Generally, an amendment to the Constitution requires a two -third majority of the two houses of Parliament.

Law-Making —

        Law - making is the most important function of the Parliament. It makes laws on a variety of subjects that are under the jurisdiction of the central government. We shall study about them in detail in the next chapter.