Nothing gives me pleasure as much as taking the politicians down a peg or two. And I am really glad that the towering leader of the national opposition L.K. Advani gave me an opportunity to do so, before going after his counterparts in the ruling party. If you haven’t read L.K. Advani’s letter to the sitting Prime Minister on how ‘he’ wants the various constitutional posts of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
Seems he has expressed a wish that it should be a ‘collegium’ who should be enabled to do so, instead of the present practice of leaving it to the Executive. To the uninitiated, he didn’t express the word ‘executive’, but to quote reports, termed it as "The present system whereby members to the Election Commission are appointed by the President, solely on the advice of the Prime Minister, does not evoke confidence among the people.''
I don’t understand what he wants to do. But I have some serious problems with his suggestion.
Whether he wants that -
If this is implemented, then, taking it as a precedence, every ‘advice’ of the PM of India can be asked to be put into such a collegium, comprising of Leaders of Opposition (LoOP) and authorities from other areas of governance.
If accepted and implemented, every decision by the PM of India, who is supposed to be the Head of the Executive arm of the GoI, should be vetted by (or at least have the concurrence of) the LoOPs, who are *not* of the Executive, but are from the Legislature arm of the GoI.
To make mattes worse and to bring in the Chief Justice of India (CJI), the Judiciary arm of the GoI into it is even more nauseous. Not to mention the dichotomy if ever such a appointment is questioned, say for impeachment or its equivalent.
Who will decide on the legality of the ‘impeachment’? The Chief Justice of India who himself would have been a party to the original decision in the first place?
If it is the latter, then the PM of India, under the Constitution of India has such a ‘collegium’, already in place. That collegium is called the ‘Cabinet’. Now to involve or expand such a collegium to include LoOP and judicial officers effectively neuters the Parliamentary form of government adopted by us and as drafted by Babasaheb B.R. Ambedkar and others.
L.K. Advani is said to have added "Keeping these important decisions as the exclusive preserve of the ruling party renders the selection process vulnerable to manipulation and partisanship.”
I suggest that he should get a good reading of the Constitution of India. These important decisions, as they stand now, are in fact, the “exclusive” preserve of the “Executive”, not the ruling party. If he is suggesting that the Legislature, the Parliament, should have more say on appointments of constitutional authorities or on important positions, he and his party should list out such appointments of importance and move and win a Parliamentary vote or amendment to implement such changes.
Personally I would be very happy if we can adopt a system like in the USA, where every appointment by the President of USA to important positions have to run through the gamut of Senate confirmation. Then there would be no need for LoOP or CJI or the Law Minister to be involved at all and create possible conflict of interests down the line.
As far as L.K. Advani himself, he is impotent to make his own party adopt such a line. It is now known that L.K. Advani was not enamoured of the decision by the RSS to continue with the leadership of Nitin Gadkari at the BJP. So perhaps this pot shot at the PM is nothing but his own ‘advice’ to the RSS to adopt a collegium approach in matters of his party leadership.
I wonder if he would agree that the RSS should, at the minimum, ‘bounce’ its decisions on the BJP leadership with the Congress, Mulayam Singh, Lalu Yadav or Prakash Karat.
:-P
But to think that we have such people who aspire to be the next PM of India - God help us.
Seems he has expressed a wish that it should be a ‘collegium’ who should be enabled to do so, instead of the present practice of leaving it to the Executive. To the uninitiated, he didn’t express the word ‘executive’, but to quote reports, termed it as "The present system whereby members to the Election Commission are appointed by the President, solely on the advice of the Prime Minister, does not evoke confidence among the people.''
I don’t understand what he wants to do. But I have some serious problems with his suggestion.
Whether he wants that -
- the ‘advice’ of the PM of India (to the President) should be vetted by a collegium (as suggested); or,
- the PM should only ‘advice’ the President on the concurrence of a ‘collegium’?
If this is implemented, then, taking it as a precedence, every ‘advice’ of the PM of India can be asked to be put into such a collegium, comprising of Leaders of Opposition (LoOP) and authorities from other areas of governance.
If accepted and implemented, every decision by the PM of India, who is supposed to be the Head of the Executive arm of the GoI, should be vetted by (or at least have the concurrence of) the LoOPs, who are *not* of the Executive, but are from the Legislature arm of the GoI.
To make mattes worse and to bring in the Chief Justice of India (CJI), the Judiciary arm of the GoI into it is even more nauseous. Not to mention the dichotomy if ever such a appointment is questioned, say for impeachment or its equivalent.
Who will decide on the legality of the ‘impeachment’? The Chief Justice of India who himself would have been a party to the original decision in the first place?
If it is the latter, then the PM of India, under the Constitution of India has such a ‘collegium’, already in place. That collegium is called the ‘Cabinet’. Now to involve or expand such a collegium to include LoOP and judicial officers effectively neuters the Parliamentary form of government adopted by us and as drafted by Babasaheb B.R. Ambedkar and others.
L.K. Advani is said to have added "Keeping these important decisions as the exclusive preserve of the ruling party renders the selection process vulnerable to manipulation and partisanship.”
I suggest that he should get a good reading of the Constitution of India. These important decisions, as they stand now, are in fact, the “exclusive” preserve of the “Executive”, not the ruling party. If he is suggesting that the Legislature, the Parliament, should have more say on appointments of constitutional authorities or on important positions, he and his party should list out such appointments of importance and move and win a Parliamentary vote or amendment to implement such changes.
Personally I would be very happy if we can adopt a system like in the USA, where every appointment by the President of USA to important positions have to run through the gamut of Senate confirmation. Then there would be no need for LoOP or CJI or the Law Minister to be involved at all and create possible conflict of interests down the line.
As far as L.K. Advani himself, he is impotent to make his own party adopt such a line. It is now known that L.K. Advani was not enamoured of the decision by the RSS to continue with the leadership of Nitin Gadkari at the BJP. So perhaps this pot shot at the PM is nothing but his own ‘advice’ to the RSS to adopt a collegium approach in matters of his party leadership.
I wonder if he would agree that the RSS should, at the minimum, ‘bounce’ its decisions on the BJP leadership with the Congress, Mulayam Singh, Lalu Yadav or Prakash Karat.
:-P
But to think that we have such people who aspire to be the next PM of India - God help us.
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