India's first Prez and PM battled it out over supremacy: Book

The outcome of a clash between our first President Dr Rajendra Prasad and our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru perhaps shaped our polity which recognises the supremacy of Parliament.

Letters exchanged between Dr Prasad and Nehru show that the former strived for wide discretionary powers for the President but we settled for a pure parliamentary form of government only because the latter won in the clash between the two titans of the time.

The letters exchanged between the two leaders in 1950 and 1951 became public on Saturday with the release of a book by Constitution law expert Subhash C. Kashyap and Abhaya Kashyap. The full text of the letters lie annexed to the book Indian Presidency, which was launched by Dr Karan Singh at the India International Centre on Saturday.

Dr Prasad sent a note to Nehru on March 21, 1950, elaborating on the vague area relating to exercise of power by the President independent of the advice of the council of ministers and stressed that there was a need for clarity on the issue. He stated that the President was not an MP but was the third part of the legislature whose assent was required for a Bill passed by Parliament to become a law.

He also stressed on the right of the President to directly contact any secretary to seek information or advice in any matter.

He said a direct contact between the governor and a secretary was objected to in the pre- Independence era, but there was no room for suspicion now.

Nehru stated that the President as per Article 74 of the Constitution was to perform "all functions whatsoever" on the aid and advice of the council of ministers as it was the council which, as per Article 75, was made collectively responsible to the House of people. This arrangement laid down the supremacy of the House of people in the governance of the country.

"The moment the President refuses to accept its (council of ministers) aid and advice, there'll be a breakdown in the constitutional machinery," Nehru wrote back on October 6, 1950. He stressed that the framers of the Constitution had clearly chosen the parliamentary form as against the presidential form of government.

Source: http://indiatoday.feedsportal.com/c/33614/f/589699/s/215a100b/l/0Lindiatoday0Bintoday0Bin0Cstory0Cletters0Eexchanged0Ebetween0Edr0Erajendra0Eprasad0Eprasad0Eand0Enehru0C10C20A82680Bhtml/story01.htm

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