How Modiâs Parliament âBhoomi Pujanâ Breached the Constitutionâs Basic Structure
In anything to do with the parliament of India, the prime minister has less importance than a president and vice president.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone of new parliament building in New Delhi. Photo: PTI
Politics23/Dec/2020
Parliamentary protocols and proprieties are an integral part of the ethics and culture of parliamentary democracy. They constitute not only the form of parliamentary democracy, but also its soul and substance.
For example, in any parliamentary proceeding, if the presiding officer (speaker in the case of the Lok Sabha and chairman in the case of the Rajya Sabha, who happens to be the vice president of India) rises from his or her chair, even the prime minister has to sit down. Similarly, in any function in or outside parliament in which the president and/or the vice president are present, they enjoy a higher protocol than the prime mi