Bull's Eye

To understand how this could happen, consider the following scenario. Suppose some allies withdraw support to the NDA government. Further suppose that the NDA government cannot manage the numbers game and eventually loses its majority in Parliament. Suppose that the Opposition parties fail to reach agreement on who should lead a new government. Suppose that before the presidential polls can be held, Parliament is dissolved. In June, the candidates for the next presidential poll will have to file nominations. Suppose that the Lok Sabha elections are timed to precede the President's election.

What would happen next? The President would be elected by new MPs, who are yet to be elected themselves. Won't the presidential candidates choose their prospective supporters from among the parties contesting the polls? And wouldn't they, then, actually campaign for them? Wouldn't the presidential candidates emerge, in fact, as the chief campaigners in that parliamentary election? Wouldn't voters know that when voting for a Lok Sabha candidate they would in fact be voting also for a particular presidential candidate?

After the results of the Lok Sabha poll, the new MPs along with MLAs would elect the President. They would owe their victory in the polls largely to the presidential candidate who campaigned for them.

After that, what kind of relationship would exist between the new President and the new cabinet? The President would have developed a moral stature that inevitably would alter his political role. The Indian Constitution would have created its own version of a presidential system.

To perpetuate the new system, Parliament would have to introduce minor amendments in the Constitution. The tenures of the President, Parliament and state assemblies would have to be made fixed and co-terminus. And abracadabra! Without altering the Constitution's basic structure, India would have switched to a presidential system!

How unique and odd
That though we plead
Our leaders don't heed
But leave things to God!