Lessons From the Power Shift in London : Daily Current Affairs

Date: 08/09/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Comparison between the constitution of India and other countries.

Key Phrases: Inner party democracy, Power shift in UK, Election of MPs in India and UK, First past the post system.

Context:

  • The PM election in UK has a lot to offer to the world of democracy.
  • This development in the United Kingdom has many lessons for India too.

Background

  • The power shift in the UK not only went by party rules, it showed how a parliamentary system of governance is meant to function.
  • It calls for India to consider empowering its elected representatives, to ensure accountability for party leadership.
  • The parliamentary system of government in India is largely based on the British parliamentary system. However, it never became a replica of the British system and differs in the various respects:
    • India has a republican system in place of the British monarchical system. The Head of the State in India is elected, while the Head of the State in Britain enjoys a hereditary position.
    • The British system is based on the doctrine of the sovereignty of Parliament, while the Parliament is not supreme in India and enjoys limited and restricted powers due to a written Constitution, federal system, judicial review and fundamental rights.
    • In Britain, the prime minister should be a member of the Lower House while in India, the prime minister may be a member of any of the two Houses of Parliament.

Election of Members of Parliament
UK India
  • A candidate must be authorized by the party's nominating officer to become an MP representing a main political party.
  • MPs must win the most votes in the constituency.
  • MPs do not owe their nomination to the party leader, but are selected by the local constituency party. The UK is divided into 650 constituencies.
  • In a constituency, everyone is eligible to cast a vote during an election selecting one candidate to be their MP.
  • The candidate who gets the most votes becomes the MP for that area.
  • If an MP dies or retires, a by-election is held in that constituency.
  • General elections happen every five years and at a general election, all constituencies become vacant.
  • Parliament of India consists of two houses - Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Members are elected for each one of them.
  • In Lok Sabha or the House of the People - for electing representatives, each state is divided into territorial constituencies.
  • Representatives are elected from each constituency using the First-past-the-post system.
  • In Rajya Sabha or the Council of States - the representatives of states are elected by the members of state legislative assemblies.
  • The 12 members are nominated by the President having special knowledge or practical experience in art, literature, science and social service.

 

First Past the Post System:

  • In this system of election, the candidate who secures the majority of votes is declared elected.
  • A candidate does not need to secure most of the votes from a constituency, rather highest among all the contestants.

United Kingdom: Power of MPs against PM

  • A Prime Minister has to be able to maintain the confidence of his ministers at all times to run a stable government.
  • If there is a sense that the leader is no longer acceptable to the country, then a well-structured mechanism comes into action to protect the party’s electoral gains by providing fresh leadership.
  • If a numerical or percentage threshold (15% of the party’s MPs in the U.K.) is breached, an automatic leadership vote is triggered, with the party leader forced to seek a fresh mandate from the parliamentary party.

India: Power of MPs against PM

  • A no-confidence motion can be moved in the Lok Sabha against the entire council of ministers.
  • The motion states that the CoMs are no longer deemed fit to hold positions of responsibility due to their inadequacy in some respect or their failure to carry out their obligations.
  • No prior reason needs to be stated for its adoption in the Lok Sabha. It can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha under rule 198.
  • The Constitution does not mention it. Although, Article 75 does specify that the CoMs shall be collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

Lesson we can learn:

  • The first round of candidates for a new leader used elimination ballots and the final choice of either Truss or Sunak was left to party members.
  • This was inner-party democracy of the sort that rarely translates from theory into practice in India.
  • It was also a reminder of Ambedkar’s rationale in rejecting a presidential system:
    • An individual-focused arena of politics, with direct polls to the top office, has fewer pre-emptive checks.
    • Structurally, we would always be served better by the live moderative effects of multiple empowered minds with ears to the ground in various constituencies.
    • This can pre-empt a power concentration that could risk gross deviations from the popular will

Inner Party Democracy in India

  • India is one of the most vibrant and robust multi-party democracies in the world with political parties, like in any other modern democracy, have been the major driver of democratic politics and governmental power in the country.

What does the hold on the issue?

  • There are no explicit provisions in the Indian Constitution that lays down guidelines for regulating the electoral conduct of the political parties in India. There is no mention of political parties either in the statute.
  • Section 29 (A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 mandates the registration of political parties. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is also not equipped to regulate the functioning of the political parties.

The SC says

  • In the case of ‘Indian National Congress vs Institute of Social Welfare & Others’ of 2002, the Supreme Court held that the ECI cannot take punitive action against registered political parties for violating the principles of inner-party democracy. The court, acknowledging the de-registering powers of the registering authority, maintained that the issue of political parties is different from other forms of registration. This makes the regulation of the conduct and functioning of the political parties extremely difficult, reducing the chances of democratic working of parties in the country.

Major Challenges:

  • It has been observed that the leadership is mostly decided by a coterie of party functionaries who holds sway over the party administration. Even when elections take place in which the members of the national organisational or decision-making body of the party participate, the pre-determined choice of the party elite is merely supported by the other members.
  • The composition of the party elite in the political parties suggests that centralised and ambiguous working of the parties lead to distribution of party ticket to certain sections of the population and certain unwanted sections (read, criminals), excluding the rest of the society
  • Faulty Anti Defection Law restricts freedom of legislators, is another issue which dilutes inner party democracy.

Way Forward

  • There are a number of suggestions on electoral reforms that have been put forward “by several committees like the Dinesh Goswami Committee, the Tarkunde Committee and Indrajit Gupta Committee, which strongly argued for more transparent working of the political parties in the country.
  • The 1999 Law Commission Report strongly recommended the introduction of a regulatory framework for governing the internal structures and inner party democracy of the political parties.
  • A draft Political Parties (Registration and Regulation of Affairs) Act, 2011 was submitted to the Union Law Ministry which envisaged role of local committees in the election of the executive body of the party.
  • Political parties control the levers of governance in a democracy. So only strong political will emanating from irrefutable electoral demands for inner-party democracy can only lead India towards the process of democratising its political parties.

Source: Live-Mint  ORF-Online

Mains Question:

Q. The parliamentary system of government in India is largely based on the British parliamentary system. However, it never became a replica of the British system and differs in various aspects. Elaborate. [250 Words].