Political system of India
India has a federal parliamentary system which is built on the model of British Westminster system. The Prime Minister serves as the head of government while the President is the head of state and holds unlimited political power just like a British monarch. Indian judiciary exercise independently from the executive and the legislature .Executive power is in the hands of government while the federal legislative power is held jointly by the government and two chambers of the parliament. The two chambers of parliament are known as:
Rajya Sabha (Council of states); consisting of approx. 250 members, among which 12 of them are nominated by the President and the rest of them are elected through elections.
Lok Sabha (House of the People); Consisting of 545 members out of which 530 are directly elected through the 25 states of India. The rest of the 13 candidates are elected from the seven union territories.
India gained independence from British colonization in the year 1947. In 1950 the constitution was implemented making India a “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic”. India has got a federal sort of government but the central government holds much more power than the states.
Historical and current political situation
On August 15, 1947, India emerged as a free country with Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime minister of the newly born country. India today is known as “Federal Republic”, with Prime Minister as head of Government and President as Head of State. The constitution of India was implemented in the year 1950. Jawaharlal Nehru served the post of Prime Minister until his death in the year 1964. The congress, party of M. K Mohan Das Gandhi, who was the founder of India, governed the country for the next three decades. Nehru was the first Prime Minister till his last breathe in 1964. He was succeeded by his daughter Indra Gandhi and later by his grandson.
The Indian National Congress, since the freedom of the India has been serving as the ruling party, except some brief periods in 1970’s and 1980’s. In 1998, first time in the history of India PJP formed the government and served its full term (i.e. five years). In the 2004 elections the Indian National Council once again won the elections with a heavy majority and Dr. Manmohan Sighn was appointed the Prime Minister (he is still serving his term as the Prime Minister). In the Presidential elections of 19th July, 2007, Pratibha Patel was appointed the President of Republic of India.
The national parliament of India is known as the Lok Sabha. Elections in India are held after every five years. The last elections were held in April/May 2009.
In 2004 elections, the Congress got 150 seats, the BJP 130, the Left 60, and about 200 went to various other parties. Singh was the first Sikh to become head of government in India. The government has been able to maintain solid economic growth. During the tenure Singh’s government has been successful in maintaining a solid economic growth and good relations with key players like the United States, Russia and Brazil. UPA government claims to have reduced terrorism in Kashmir and to have improved relations with Pakistan until the Mumbai attacks took place. The Mumbai attacks are regarded as part of UPA’s government’s failure. It has been targeted by the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has for being too soft on terror. This crisis has made national security issue and terrorism one of the top agenda for the upcoming elections. 2008 proved to be a difficult year for the government because of the many challenges it faced and which the government is accused of not handling too well.
Manmohan was sworn in as the second Prime Minister of India on May 22 2009 with a massive mandate that included the backing of 322 MPs.
The Congress-led UPA captured 261 seats in India's 543-seat Parliament. With the support of two key regional parties – Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party, with 43 seats along with some independents the party’s strength increased to a comfortable number of 322. BJP party leader Lal Krishna Advani, the Leader of the Opposition
officially elected on January 23rd was the candidate for Prime Minister
from his party. The leader of the main opposition party BJP admitted defeat when the counting trends showed that the Congress Alliance was leading ahead.
Manmohan has the credit of being the first prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to have served the country for the second term.
