In January 2014, while addressing the Vijay Sankalp rally in Goa, Narendra Modi called on the audience to vote for a “Congress-mukt Bharat”. He said, “Be it dynasty politics, nepotism, corruption, communalism, divisions in society or poverty, getting freedom from all this is what I mean by a Congress-mukt Bharat.” Stating the BJP’s commitment to changing the future of India, he said, “We need efforts to integrate the nation, not divide it.” The events that have unfolded in the last few years, including the toppling of governments in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and the selective arrests of Opposition leaders, show that we are perhaps heading towards an Opposition-mukt Bharat.
Parliamentary democracy
The Indian Constitution adopted the parliamentary system and not the presidential system. B.R. Ambedkar provided the rationale for this: “A democratic executive must satisfy two conditions - (1) It must be a stable executive and (2) it must be a responsible executive. Unfortunately it has not been possible so far to devise a system which can ensure both in equal degree… In England, where the parliamentary system prevails, the assessment of responsibility of the executive is both daily and periodic. The daily assessment is done by members of Parliament, through questions, resolutions, no-confidence motions, adjournment motions and debates on addresses. Periodic assessment is done by the electorate at the time of the election... The daily assessment of responsibility which is not available under the American system it is felt far more effective than the periodic assessment and far more necessary in... India. The draft Constitution in recommending the parliamentary system... has preferred more responsibility to more stability.”
