Maha Bharat: Episode 8

What does a President Do?

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India’s President is considered our first citizen and is the people’s representative, and is critical to the functioning of our vibrant democracy. But often, the President is considered a puppet or a rubber stamp and the perception is that the president’s role is somehow just ceremonial and not as important compared to other key roles in the government.

But that is far from the truth, and in this episode, we show you exactly what role the president plays in our democracy and some interesting facts you might not have heard before!

All clips and voices used in this podcast are owned by the original creators

We thank wholeheartedly all our guests who appeared on this episode

  • P.D.T. Achary

Links to clips used in this episode —

Full Transcript of Episode 8

Taarekh hai July 25, 2017, We have a new president.

Ram Nath Kovind
Mein, Ram Nath Kovind shapat leta hoon .. palan karunga

[We hear the voice of President Ram Nath Kovind swearing in.]

President Shri Ram Nath Kovind ji has just sworn to do all his duties to the best of his abilities (karya palan karenge). But what are his duties? What is his role in the system of the Indian democracy? Is he just a rubber stamp? Is his role just ceremonial?

To answer in short is, No. He. is. Not.

But before we get to that let’s rewind a little to July 20, 2017. President Pranab Mukherjee is on his way out as the 13th President of India after 5 years of service. 

It is now time for a new president, and we have two candidates  

[We hear a news report about the Presidential candidates.]

News Anchor
The presidential election, today MPs and MLAs across the country  … choose the next President.

Well, It’s a straight contest between former governor RNK and former Lok Sabha speaker Meera Kumar

Shri Ram Nath Kovind looks like he’s going to win. But in order to secure his victory he needs to get more than half of 10,69,358 votes.

This is because people don’t vote for the president directly, the president is elected indirectly. Meaning, the people we elect into the government, vote for the president.

Before that, to even be eligible to become the President, a candidate must be nominated by 50 electors and seconded by another 50. They must be over 35, eligible to be an MP but not hold any office for profit, and obviously a citizen of India.

And in 2017, Shri Ram Nath Kovind was elected as our 14th President after winning more than 65% of the total votes.

How did we get to that total number of votes? 

In India, when we vote in our national elections, we select Members of Parliament (MPs) and when we vote in our state elections, we pick our Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of our State. Now you total all the elected MPs and MLAs in India, from the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the state assemblies. All these MPs and MLAs together, from different parts of the country, represent India, and they vote to elect the President.

Every vote by an MP and MLA in India is assigned a value and this value is different for different states. Why, you ask?

In any state, the value of an MLA’s vote is calculated as the population of the state divided by the number of MLAs divided by 1000. And since the population of the state keeps changing, the reference taken right now, is the population as per the 1971 National Census.

This calculation you can find if you look online. And by this count, the lowest value for an MLA’s vote is 7 for an MLA from Sikkim and the highest is 208 for Uttar Pradesh.

That was about MLAs. And for MPs, the formula is pretty simple – The value of an MP’s vote is calculated by totalling the “vote value” of all MLAs in the country and then dividing it by the total number of MPs. 

If you add the number of MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, that comes to 776 and the value of each MPs vote is valued at 708.

[We hear the news report about the Presidential Election Results.]

So now, the total value of both the MLAs and MPs votes is added and anyone who wants to be the president has to get a majority of that total vote.

For the next five years, President Ram Nath Kovind will be the only man in India with the power to answer a mercy plea and declare a state of emergency. 

Like in 1975, If a state of emergency is declared, the president can override many provisions of the constitution, and even change fundamental rights of a citizen.

On the other hand, the death penalty is given only in very rare cases in India. And only the president has the power to overturn that punishment. Interestingly, former president Pranab Mukherjee refused 28 mercy pleas during his time as President, which is a record.

What affects you directly though, is that the president needs to sign every bill passed by the parliament before it becomes law. 

But before all that, he first has to approve important people in the judiciary and other divisions of the government administration.

But what does this mean? What is the exact role of the President in this process?

What does it mean when we say, the president “approves” the candidates? 

This is what I asked PDT Achary — former secretary general of the Lok Sabha and constitutional expert.

PDT Achary
Well the constitution says that the part of the Indian is vested in the President cannot act except on the advice of the council of minsters. So, actually the power vests in the COMs. The COMs consists of Members of the Parliament, who are elected by the people. That means the real power vests in the Elected body and not in the President. President cannot function except on the adivce of COM. And if the COM is giving him advice on a parituclar issue, the president can seek clarification from the COM. But when the clarification is given by the COM,

This is one possible explanation for why people say “Our president is a rubber stamp” — because his responsibilities eventually end up just putting his stamp on bills passed by the ministers.

The maximum our president can do when a bill is passed by the parliament, is to send it back to them with his objections. But, if the bill passes a second time, he is obliged to sign it.

This is because the president is the representative of the people. He is the Head of State. His role is similar to the kings and monarchs in countries like Spain or England, who do what their ministers advise them.

So in India, the Prime Minister is the head of the Government, and the President is the head of State.

As the head of government, the prime minister leads the operations of the government and as head of state, the president acts as the chief public representative of the country and often performs many ceremonial duties.

So, for the system to function well, both the heads need to work well together. This is most often the case because the president is usually elected from the party that is in power. 

However, every rule has exceptions.

There are two prominent disagreements between the Indian Prime Minister and President in Indian history. The disagreement between PM Nehru and Shri Rajendra Prasad about the Hindu code bill and the rift (daraar) between our 7th president, Giani Zail Singh and then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. 

President Giani Zail Singh, was known as a loyalist of the Gandhi family. He also once accepted Sanjay Gandhi as his rehnuma and publicly stated that he was willing to sweep the floor if so directed by Indira Gandhi. 

But, president Zail Singh had become frustrated by the Prime Minister for not consulting him even on important issues. 

Rajiv Gandhi was asked why he was not following protocol and consulting with the president on important matters to which he replied “this government has broken many traditions, consider this one of them”

After two years of staying quiet, President Giani Zail Singh finally decided to assert himself (make his presence felt).

This entire conflict reached its peak with the Indian postal bill.

This was a bill that, if passed, would allow the government to read and censor even personal mail (letters) of its citizens.

See, like I said before, when the parliament passes a bill and it goes to the president, the president can send it back to parliament with his objections and ask the ministers to reconsider.

However, if the Bill passes with a majority in both houses a second time. The President HAS to sign the bill. He has NO OPTION.

So, President Zail Singh, sent the India Post office Bill back to the parliament after it reached him the first time. 

Now, as you might have guessed, it passed once again in the parliament .. Now, it was President Zail Singh’s duty to sign the bill. However, the constitution does not specify a time within which the president has to sign the bill. So, Zail Singh decided to use this loophole. 

He just put the bill in his pocket. 

This move highlighted a new power the President had, and it gave rise to the term “Pocket Veto”.

Because the president can potentially keep the bill in his “pocket” forever.

So President Giani Zail Singh, just did not sign the bill and in 1989, the bill was withdrawn when the government changed.

Proving that even though the President’s powers are written in the constitution. There are enough grey areas like the “Pocket Veto”, and if you think about it, the president is a lot more powerful than he might appear.

This is what happens when a family isn’t functioning the way it’s supposed to. These kinds of fights between the head of the parliament and the head of the state are quite rare because the president himself is actually elected by the executive.

This is what differentiates the Indian president and the president of the United States. 

The US president is directly elected. He also can send a bill passed by the congress back to them but in order for the bill to be sent to the president again it has to have a two-third majority. In India, even the second time, a simple majority is enough.

A good example to show the difference between the US democracy and our democracy is this…

[We hear President Trump being welcomed into the Rashtrapati Bhavan.]

Our Head of State, President Ram Nath Kovind and Head of Government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received Donald Trump during his visit to India. 

The US President is by himself both the head of state and head of the government of the US.

And since we just started talking about it, let me just tell you something about the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

[We hear the voice of Sharmishta.]

Sharmishtha Mukherjee
Well, the sheer, grandeur of it, and each corner is related to some history, it’s a historical building, it’s a living monument, it’s a living history.

That is Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of former president Pranab Mukherjee, talking to NDTV about the Rashtrapati Bhavan. And she is right. 

The Rashtrapati Bhavan is a place of historical importance for India and it is also where the President lives. 23,000 workers worked for 16 years to build it and it was inaugurated in 1931. 

It took 1.4 crore rupees to build in those days which in today’s money is more than 150 crore rupees and is bigger than the Buckingham Palace in England.

Even though they were both built by the British, I just like pointing out that our president lives in a bigger house than the Queen of England.

[We hear a news headline about President’s rule imposed in Maharashta.]

Let’s talk about President’s Rule.

In 2019, President’s rule was applied in two states, Jammu Kashmir and Maharashtra.

President’s rule is the application of article 356 on a state because of the failure of its constitutional machinery. 

Each state’s Governor is appointed by the President, and the President’s rule can come into effect if the Governor of a state is satisfied that the situation demands it. Any or all powers of the government can be taken on by the Governor in this case, and the Governor is then responsible for running the state.

Therefore, when the President’s rule is applied – the elected state government will be temporarily dissolved. 

And through the governor, the state will come under the direct control of the central union government. The Governor will head the state proceedings representing the president of India.

Another way this can happen is what happened recently in Maharashtra. No political party was able to form a majority.

So, like Maharashtra, for whatever reason, a majority coalition cannot be formed by the elected MLAs because of disagreements, breaking down of law and order, insurgency or rebellion.

President’s rule is applied.

And finally if both houses of the parliament sanction it, the president’s rule is applied.

[We hear a news report about President’s rule in Jammu & Kashmir.]

After that, every six months the parliament has to sanction an extension once again and it cannot be extended for more than three years. 

Today, Jammu and Kashmir holds the record for being under President’s rule for the longest time. 

In such cases, when President’s rule is applied in a state, the president appoints a governor to replace the chief minister until stability is restored.

And this is a quick summary of the role of our president. 

Overall, the president is an advisory figure but is also the head of the state. The president can declare emergency, War or even take control of any state in India.

The President is considered India’s first citizen (Pratham nagrik). The head of state, and in the political system of our country, the president is people’s representative.

The president might not be able to impact policy as strongly as the Prime minister can but can definitely make their presence felt. 

The President is an advisor to the government and forms an important part of the checks and balances in our democracy. Without the president, our democracy itself would become unstable. And that is a very dangerous thing. 

The only way for a real government of the people to function properly is with proper checks and balances. The head of state, the head of government and the judiciary keep each other in check so there is no misuse of power.

And that is why the President doesn’t just sound like an important position, it really is. 

That’s what we have for you today. 

Milte hai agle hafte, sunte rahiye, mere saath Maha Bharat.

——-

This episode was written by Mohammed Hussain and Gaurav Vaz, with research by Archana Nathan (नाथन) and Kaushani Banerjee (कौशानी बानर्जी) and additional research help and input by Sidin Vadukut (सिदिन वडुकुट)

The title track of this podcast was composed by Abhijit Nath who is the audio producer of this episode.

The title track of this podcast was composed by Abhijit Nath and Madhav Ayachit (माधव अयाचित) is the audio producer.

ATS Studio is a division of All Things Small – A true stories focussed Media Company, run by Sidin Vadukut, Supriya Nair (सुप्रिया नायर), Devaiah Bopanna (देवय्या बोपन्ना), Sunil Doshi and Gaurav Vaz.

Credits

Narrated by – Dhruv Rathee
Producer – Gaurav Vaz
Research help – Archana Nathan, Kaushani Banerjee and Sidin Vadukut
Written by – Mohammed Hussain and Gaurav Vaz

Title Track Design – Abhijith Nath
Audio Production – Abhijith Nath