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UNEASE: With PM Modi’s mass following, there are apprehensions that India may opt for a presidential system. Tribune photo
Madhav Godbole
Former Union Home Secretary
Looking at what is happening in the US, it is surprising that the presidential system is being advocated in India. Serious efforts were made during Indira Gandhi’s prime ministership to switch over to the presidential system. And it could well have become a reality as not only did the Congress have a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament, but also had majority in nearly all state legislatures. Therefore, there would have been no difficulty in getting the requisite constitutional amendment passed for change over to the presidential system, as was seen in the series of other major amendments she brought about. I had written in my book, Indira Gandhi—An era of Constitutional Democracy, that there must not be another case in history anywhere in the world where such legislations were sponsored by the ruler and meekly passed by a mute, deaf and brute majority in Parliament (and state legislatures, in the case of constitutional amendments). India was lucky in having escaped this real possibility.