Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose Rajya Sabha term is set to expire shortly, is to file his nomination papers for reelection from Assam today. Given the stature of the man and given his record as an RS member—Singh has spent his Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme funds most judiciously—victory for Singh is a foregone conclusion. But…
But, the question to ask is, should the Prime Minister of the country be from the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha? When Manmohan became PM after Sonia Gandhi‘s “great sacrifice” in May 2004, it was understandable because he was already a member of the house of elders. But does it make sense for a country of this size not to have an elected representative as prime minister?
On the other hand, given the Great Liberaliser’s defeat in the general elections from a Lok Sabha constituency that has benefited most from the liberalisation he introduced—South Delhi—is our electoral system incapable of recognising and electing the right candidate, which is why Dr Singh needs to make this back door entry into Parliament? Or does it not matter at all whether a PM from LS or RS, as long as he is a good, clean, efficient and loyal?
churumuri 
” Great Liberaliser’s ? ”
what liberalisation has he done ? the fera is still there. we still need a licence to start a factory . the license raj is still there. rich people with deep pockets can start factories and get their licences.
he liberalised only because the world bank ordered india to pay up.
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Singh should stand in a LS constituecy and get elected if he wants to be a ‘legitimate’ PM. It should give him some backbone to stand up to the Italian mafioso led by the Godmother! As an LS member, he could be questioned by the rest of the elected politicians which is the norm in a parliamentary democracy. It is surprising when even in England with the House of Lords active, the PM in modern times is an elected member of the House of Commons.
I do not think that Singh would have even strayed into liberalisation without being butt-kicked by the World Bank. I also agree that ‘the permit, license and quota Raj’ as Rajai put it years ago reigns supreme today.
‘does it not matter at all whether a PM from LS or RS, as long as he is a good, clean, efficient and loyal?’
You mean loyal to that Godmother Sonia Ghandi and her son Rahul Ghandi?
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First of all he is a head clerck to govt of India. What do I care, if he is from RS or LS? A clerck is always a clerck.
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Why does the RS have less legitimacy than the LS? The framers of our constitution – all intelligent – clearly knew what they were doing when they allowed RS members to occupy positions in the government. The states need a voice in legislature and there is nothing wrong with a state representative being in government. If anything, such a person can act with more freedom and not get caught up in populist gimmicks – atleast that’s the theory.
What we should be debating however is why the Honourable Prime Minister is an Assam candidate. When has he ever lived there? Similarly, why is Venkaiah Naidu a RS MP from Karnataka?
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He must face the electorate. If he has spent his MPLAD money judivciously, If the people of Assam are happy with him, let him contest a Loksabha election from Assam. It is really a sad comentary on our politics that the largest democracy cannot even get a properly elected Prime Minister
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@Gokulam,
Manmohan Singh is a permanent resident of Guwahati. He’s also in the voter’s list of Guwahati. It makes sense for him to get elected from Assam.
There is a bit of history to it, when Narasimha Rao wanted Manmohan Singh to be the finance minister, Punjab was under president rule and hence Manmohan Singh contested from Assam. What I’m not sure is, if he moved to Assam (at least for the records) only for that election. You can question this part of the history, but w.r.t this election, our PM is a resident of Assam and also a voter from Assam.
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Indu,
An RS member too is “properly elected”. There is nothing undemocratic or less democratic about RS members if I recall my civics lessons properly.
Manoj,
I agree that he is legally a resident of Assam. But that is just a perversion of our residency laws. Venkaiah Naidu from Karnataka and Jairam Ramesh from Andhra are in the same situation.
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G3S…
But considering the importance of PM’s office, would it not be better if he took a more direct ballot. Direct election also eliminates the more dangerous, fashionable idealogues. At the very minimum, winning an election requires being in touch with realities of the common folks.
this is a request. can elaborate on the merits of a rajya sabha. essentially, who or what is a rajya sabha member representing?
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Not all RS members are elected. 12 are nominated by the president, the rest are elected by state legislatures. It is possible to guarantee an election of a candidate from a specific party from a state legislature if that party has legislators who are in a majority, which is not the same as the candidate standing in a LS constituency. In simple terms a RS candidate can be guaranteed to be elected.
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!960s was the time when the RS candidacy was much misused by the party in power. For example, Nijalingappa was always elected unopposed to the legislative assembly, because the main opposition candidates having assured of RS seats were made to withdraw. Nijalingappa happily ruled several years as the CM as a result. The same tactics was used by Thiru Karunanidhi who sent so many of his opponents in his and other parties. The rice -eating opponents as RS members consumed chappathis made of wheat and as gluten was continually ingested into their systems they dropped off one by one!! Clever son of a gun Thiru Karuna was!!
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TS, going by the evidence, it is hard to believe that a direct election eliminates ideologues. Mani Shankar Aiyer, Somnath Chatterjee….all our red warriors, even MM Joshi and LK Advani of a previous era. The very fact that government is accountable to the LS makes being in touch with the common people possible. The MP from Mysore will definitely ask the concerned minister – whether he/she is from LS or RS – why the railway track doubling hasn’t yet happened. Oh wait, our Mysore MP does not ask questions.
Regardless, the RS from what I understand is modeled on the US Senate but with less teeth. The Rajya Sabha is supposed to represent the interests of the states of India as opposed to the people of India. This was done to ensure that a true federation might evolve. So a RS MP is representing the entire state from which he/she is elected and ideally they have the confidence of the elected representatives of the state. So Venkaiah Naidu and Vijay Mallya should have been foaming at the mouth after the Cauvery verdict.
It is a good arrangement in theory. What would make it work better I think is if Rajya Sabha members had purely a state affiliation and not a party affiliation.
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The Post of Prime Minister of a Country carries certain respect, it is only fair that this post is reserved for the Elected members of Lok Sabha. Rajya sabha is a forum of elders and the proceedings of which is of advisory nature. As per the constitution Lok Sabha can pass a bill even though it is rejected by Rajya sabha. Mr. Manmohan Singh should stand for an election to Lok Sabha to occupy the Chair of Prime Minister.
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“Regardless, the RS from what I understand is modeled on the US Senate but with less teeth”
The legal framework of the constitution was formulated at the time of independence by a group chaired by Sir Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, the brilliant barrister at that time ( he son was a mathematician of international repute). From what I know the RS was modelled taking the appointment bits of the House of Lords in Britain (where the 12 appointments come in) and the US senate and by making it function like House of Lords where it is subservient to LS ( House of Commons), where LS can pass the bill rejected by RS , just like the House of Commons ( may House of Lords ejected bills were passed by House of Commons recently) .
Looking at men around him who were all freedom fighters, Sir Alladi did not think that they would manipulate the RS election system to the party benefit. If you want to change the party-based RS elections, as it being very fundamental to the constitution framework ( representation of people), a constituin amedment is required. Given that all parties at state level exploit the RS election process, the chance of constitution amendment succeeding is almost nil ( as the amendment bill has to be passed through 2/3 of all state legislatures)
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I know that Sir Alladi looked at all legislature structures around the world,and the RS suggested above was meant to be a house of elders (like the House of Lords) where the states send their distinguished representatives in all walks of life. That is exactly what the House of Lords is. It was never meant to be forum for a PM of the country to emerge. Of course LS constituencies elect bigots, even Hitler was originally elected. But that does not take away the merit of the argument that a potential PM of the country should be elected by a direct ballot, which can happen only in a LS constituency.
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Funny. Manmohan Singh is not ‘fighting” even this election! There are two vacant seats in Assam now. Congress party has lot more votes in the Assam assembly than required for Manmohan Singh. But the congress doesn’t want to risk contesting for the other seat, because they suspect sabotage could lead to Manmohan SIngh being defeated by his own partymen. In short Manmohan singh is not fighting this election, he is going to get unopposed at worst or get a safe passage at best.
India must be the only country in the world where someone has become Prime Minister without ever ‘winning’ any election. Either directly or indirectly. (Indirectly – as explained above).
And guess what this ‘model’ citizen of Assam failed to vote in the last elections. Meaning he is seeking ‘selection’ from a house for which he didn’t even bother to vote. Shameful!
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