From Nehru to Modi: The Executive in India

The legitimacy of the executive in parliamentary democracy comes from Parliament. The Parliamentary system envisages an accountable executive collectively responsible to the Parliament. This assertion is also reflected during the deliberations of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution and the Constituent Assembly Debates. The executive in India consists of the President who is the head of the State and the Prime Minister who heads the government. Executive, legislature and judiciary are constitutionally equipped to perform different roles in a democracy. The constitution grants structural and functional autonomy but how the executive evolved also depends on the political processes, nature and assertion of power by a Prime Minister, his personality and outlook, his command and hold over the organisational wing of his own party, the nature of majority which the government enjoys and the composition of the cabinet. Similarly, the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister is contingent upon the nature of the government whether it is a stable, majority, minority or coalition government and the personality and background of the President and Prime Minister, respectively. This article demarcates the nature and functioning of the executive in India since Nehru and in particular, since the instituionalisation of coalition governments at the Centre. The article also shows how during the coalition period, the status and position of the Prime Minister transformed with the emergence of new institutions like the Group of Ministers and Coordination Committees that imparted strength and stability to the former.