-I am sad

I am sad. Indian constitution does not confer any executive power to the President. The president of India is for practical purpose is only a head of the state without any freedom to exercise his power in matters of governmental activities. He is a titular head. It is merely a decorative post to symbolize the government only-like the king or queen in the U.K. The actual power rests on the executives whose head is the Prime Minister. To pass any bill in the parliament the government requires sending it to the President for his approval. The President has no option but to approve it even if he feels that execution of the law (bill) is harmful to the country. He may return the bill to the parliament (who has passed it by virtue of the majority of its members) for reconsideration. But if the parliament send this without any subsequent change/s the President is bound to seal his approval however unwilling he or she is to do so. Some people like to call this august post as ‘rubber stamp President’. The President is also the head of the armed forces of the country. The virtual power rests on the Prime Minister who is the leader of his/her cabinet colleagues. Then ultimately the party in power who represent the majority members is the guiding factor as the party selects the Prime Minister. Now if the party selects a member of their ruling group as their leader –in most cases he or she becomes the Prime Minister. But if for some political expediency the leader feels that he or she (in spite of the leader of the party) should make another person to take up the post of the P.M. then he or she can do as we see in the Indian scenario. But general educated people know who wields the actual power. So unfortunately the two top governmental posts do not have virtual power to execute powers now. In the case of the executive head of the government –this is the first instance in India’s post independent history. The ruling party has not gathered enough courage to make a foreign born person the all in all in the government. The opposition party opposed to install a foreign-native in the helm of such post. The constitution of the USA does not permit such person to be the President of their country. Only a naturalized citizen of the USA can be the head of the country. There are several reasons behind such law. So though we have no such provision in the Indian constitution to disallow a foreigner to become the PM of the country-if he/she is a citizen of India the party in power shied away to make a foreign-born person to become the PM because they knew that it does not behove to do so. However all the people know that who wields the power behind the PM. Now let us come again to the matters of the Presidential post. Yes our Presidents do not have any power. They are the decorative head of the government. So we must be careful to choose someone as our President who should a person who has some remarkable contributions towards the country’s welfare, dignity, prestige etc. He should be known elite and honoured by all. The great and the ancient country of ours should be represented by a person of great quality. The ex-President Mr. Kalam was such a person. All of India-irrespective of cast and creed and religion loved respected him. Alas! We have not found his proper substitution. May God bless this country.