Time to stop affronts to Constitutional offices

All political parties are now in poll mode as the country will be facing about six Assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections in next six months. There will be new governments and all of them will come up with new budgets with or without including the promises they made during the polls. The budget session of Assemblies and Parliament will witness the ritual of oath-taking and then the President will deliver joint address to the Parliament and Governors will address the Assemblies.

We will see the President or the Governors reading the address prepared by the government. I remember when R Venkatraman was the President of India, he had a real embarrassing situation. He had to first read out the speech prepared by V P Singh government during his joint address to the Parliament. Soon after this government had to go following its defeat on the floor of the house on mandal issue; the President then had to read the report prepared by the Chandrasekhar government and when this government also collapsed, he had to read another report prepared by the P V Narasimha Rao government.

There are also several occasions when the opposition, more particularly in state Assemblies, resorted to tearing off the speech copies, throwing the papers at the Governor, raising slogans and obstructing the speech. During the agitation of separate Telangana, we saw how some TRS legislators kicked the chair of the Governor. There are also any number of occasions in Assemblies where the Governors were seen reading the first page at great speed and last para and going away from the Assembly.

This makes one wonder as to whether there is a need to continue with the colonial practice or should there be some changes introduced to the practice of joint address. It is a well- known fact that in India the President has a different role to play as compared to countries like US. The President in US is both the head of the state and head of government and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. Under Article II of the Constitution, the President is responsible for the execution and enforcement of the laws created by the Congress. But here that is not the situation. The President or the Governor must function according to the advice of the council of ministers. They can advise the government of the day on certain matters but have no veto power in most of the issues.

In 1991, the then Leader of Opposition Atal Behari Vajpayee in fact raised this issue on the floor of the Parliament and felt that there should be a thorough discussion on this issue. Nothing changed since then.

Hence, it is high time that at least the next Parliament discusses this issue and makes necessary amendments to the Constitution and see that the prestige of the offices of the President and the Governor do not have to face any embarrassment. What can be better time than Azadi Ka Amrut Kal to take measures to see that the honour and dignity of these institutions are well-protected.

President and Governors need to be respected. The ruling parties in states should not think that they are mouthpieces of the government and, hence, should act as rubber stamps. The tendency has been that any Governor who does not blindly append his or her signature is treated as an agent of Centre and is denied even the basic facilities which are granted under the Constitution. From legislator to the Chief Minister, all keep making all kinds of allegations against them. This situation needs to change. Democracy does not mean that the elected representatives can indulge in any act that would bring disrespect to the institution of President or Governor.