Prime Minister Narendra Modi has never failed to dazzle the nation optically. On June 7, 2024, at a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance of newly elected Members of Parliament, Mr. Modi, in attendance, paid homage to the Constitution of India by touching the book on his forehead. Interestingly, the setting of the meeting was Samvidhan Sadan of the newly constructed Parliament.
But does Mr. Modi respect the Indian Constitution in letter and spirit? His performance so far as Prime Minister since 2014, or for that matter as Chief Minister of Gujarat, shows otherwise.
In a parliamentary democracy, the Prime Minister is only the head of the Council of Ministers. Article 74 of the Constitution mandates: “There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to assist and advise the President who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice.”
Highlights from PM Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on 09 June 2024
Take ‘responsibility’
BR Ambedkar and his colleagues wisely chose the parliamentary system over the presidential system because “From the point of view of accountability, the non-Parliamentary Executive independent of Parliament tends to be less accountable to the Legislature, while the Parliamentary Executive becomes more dependent on the majority in Parliament so It is expected that the daily and periodic evaluation of the members of Parliament with questions, motions of no confidence and debates are carried out by the voters every five years prefer “more responsibility for stability”.
On June 9, 2024, the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by the President of India. But it was only after the first cabinet meeting on the evening of June 10 that the Minister’s portfolio was announced. However, on the same day, the Prime Minister cleared the file sanctioning the release of the seventeenth installment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, a farmer welfare scheme, worth ₹20,000 crore. Can the Prime Minister do it all? And is it in their territory according to the Business Rules? The scheme will be under the Ministry of Agriculture with its work being managed by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure.
So why would the Prime Minister take pre-emptive and possibly illegal action? It’s optical.
The first Cabinet, which met without portfolio allocation, also took a decision “to provide assistance to three crore additional rural and urban households for House Construction under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana”. Can this be done by a cabinet without a portfolio? Which ministry has initiated the proposal? Is the agenda distributed? Do the ministers know the details? Why the rush? Optical.
But again, without reconstituting the Cabinet Committee after the new government, the Prime Minister extended the tenure of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and PK Mishra as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. This was done under the old “Cabinet Appointments Committee”, which included the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.
In constitutional morality
So what happened to coalition dharma?
The event shows the Prime Minister’s disregard for the Constitution. Unfortunately, none of the Ministers or bureaucrats bound by the constitutional details and controls objected. Why?
BR Ambedkar understood the problem. On November 4, 1948, before the Constituent Assembly, he said that “constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It must be cultivated. We must understand that our nation has not learned. Democracy in India is only a top dress on Indian soil, which is not really democratic.
So how does this Great Son of India predict Modi today? Because, for him, constitutional morality means “the most important respect for the forms of the Constitution” and the forms of the Constitution must be sacred in the eyes of those in power and their opponents. To ensure this, the framers provided administrative details in the Constitution of India.
Article 77, then, states that “The President shall make rules for the convenient transaction of the business of the Government of India, and for the allocation between the Ministers of such business”.
In modern times, the functioning of the Government of India shows a complete negation of the cabinet system and collective responsibility to the President and the Parliament. There is tremendous power in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) which undermines the constitutional basis of “other responsibility”.
Pertinently, the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, as they stand now, only allocate business to the PMO – “To provide Secretarial Assistance to the PM”. On the contrary, they provide that “The business of the Government of India shall be carried on in the Ministries, Departments, Secretariats and Offices specified in the First Schedule to these Rules”. Also, the distribution of subjects is given in the Second Schedule. Even the Cabinet Secretariat only provides “Secretariat Assistance to Cabinet and Cabinet Committees” and implements “Business Rules”.
So why the complete breakdown of the constitutional framework and ethos? Bhakti.
The advent of constitutional dictatorship
BR Ambedkar has warned that Bhakti in life is good for the salvation of the soul. But in politics, it is a sure path to dictatorship. What we are witnessing is a constitutional dictatorship, which the drafters strongly opposed.
Manipur has been burning for more than a year. However, the Prime Minister has yet to find time to visit the State, let alone address the existential threat to the State. If there is an opposition government in power in Manipur, President’s Rule will be imposed in the State under Article 356. Does the Prime Minister show any urgency to address serious challenges such as poverty, increasing unemployment, (real) inflation or even resolve the situation in Kashmir? Not. Why? This is a thorn problem and does not provide fast optics.
The Prime Minister’s campaign in the recently concluded general election is clear evidence of his disregard for constitutional morality. While on the campaign trail, he repeatedly attacked the country’s largest minority community, forgetting that secularism runs through the foundations of the Constitution. He belittles the Opposition in every speech and forgets that in our democracy, the Opposition has a place of honour. However, no institution or guardian stood up to warn him, let alone stop him. The Prime Minister, as per current electoral law, can be disqualified from Parliament. But who dares in a country where fear lurks in every nook and cranny? So much for democracy.
So, will the newly rejuvenated government and opposition coalition partners remind the Prime Minister of the need to adhere to constitutional morality? So far, they have failed us: the people, whose Constitution created a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Let’s wait with hope.
Dushyant Dave is a Senior Advocate and former President of the High Court Bar Association
