:: P.C. Alexander

How to choose a Prime Minister

P.C. Alexander

Jan. 28:A few days ago, at a meeting of prospective investors in Ahmedabad, two prominent businessmen publicly announced in their separate interventions that in their judgment Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was the best choice for the office of Prime Minister of India. If their intention was to lend support to a "Modi for Prime Minister" campaign, it was both out of place and counter-productive. Such expressions of support by top industrialists of the country would only create the impression that the business class would like to have their own candidate as Prime Minister and that Mr Modi is their favoured choice. I am tempted to say that such moves are instances of how not to choose candidates for prime ministership. Anyhow, since Mr Modi has himself publicly declared that he is not a contestant for the office of Prime Minister, one can only hope that there will be no further speculations on his candidature.

What should be the ideal procedure for selecting candidates for the office of Prime Minister in a parliamentary democracy? We often turn to Britain for precedents in matters relating to the working of the parliamentary system of government, but Britain does not have clear conventions on choosing candidates for prime ministership. There have been instances in Britain when the Crown had chosen Prime Ministers without waiting for the parliamentary party to formally elect its leader. The last such occasion was in 1957 when Antony Eden had to resign as the Prime Minister after the Suez Canal fiasco. The Queen had then invited Herold Macmillan to form the government though both R.A. Butler and Macmillan were strong claimants for the post within the Tory Party, which was then the majority party in Parliament. This type of royal intervention, however, has not happened in Britain in recent years. After Margaret Thatcher won three successive general elections for the Tory Party, it has become the established practice in Britain that the person who leads party to victory would be elected as the Prime Minister.

In India, the practice till the advent of the coalition era had been to elect the person who had led the party to victory at the polls as the Prime Minister. Jawaharlal Nehru led his party to thumping victories in three successive general elections and his election as Prime Minister was a mere formality. The election of Lal Bahadur Shastri as Prime Minister in 1964 and of Indira Gandhi in 1966 were done in two stages each. The first was an informal verification of the wishes of Congress party members in the Parliament and the next was the election by the MPs. Morarji Desai was a contestant for the post on both occasions, but he could get the support of only a small section within the legislative party.

Morarji Desai’s election as Prime Minister of the Janata Party government in 1977 was based on the choice of two respected leaders, Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Kruplani, who had been requested by the party to decide between the rival claims of contesting leaders like Desai, Jagjeevan Ram and Charan Singh. The decision of these leaders in favour of Morarji Desai was accepted by the Janata MPs.

In the general elections of 1980, Indira Gandhi had led the Congress party to victory and, therefore, was the automatic choice of the party for the office of Prime Minister. This was repeated in 1984 when Rajiv Gandhi led the party to victory.

However, the election of V.P. Singh in 1989 as Prime Minister involved some behind-the-scene manoeuvrings and secret pacts. Devi Lal’s name was proposed first for the Prime Minister’s post. He declined and proposed V.P. Singh’s name. V.P. Singh was elected Prime Minister and Devi Lal was made deputy Prime Minister. Senior Janata leader Chandrashekhar, who was not party to this deal, felt that he had been denied the chance of becoming Prime Minister by a conspiracy between Devi Lal and V.P. Singh.

In the election of Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister practically all conventions and practices were violated. The Congress party was taken by surprise by the sudden decision of party president Sonia Gandhi not to be a candidate for the post of Prime Minister. There was no indication that she would be nominating Mr Singh as the candidate till she actually announced it. The party then passed a resolution choosing him as the party’s candidate for the post and thus an altogether new procedure was adopted in the selection of the Prime Minister; the choice was made by one person, the party president, without any discussions within the party.

Taking into account the various precedents and conventions followed in India and the UK as narrated above, one can identify a few principles which can be considered as best suitable for India where coalition governments are likely to continue for some more years. The most important among them is that coalition agreements should be reached well before the commencement of the election campaign and that they should include agreement not only on the common agenda to be implemented but also on the leader to be projected as the prospective Prime Minister.

The second is that the leader of the coalition should campaign on behalf of all members of the coalition and not only for his/her party candidates. Wherever possible, there should be joint campaigning by leaders of the coalition partners. This will strengthen the leadership credentials of the Prime Minister.

The next is that the prime ministerial candidate should himself face elections to the Lok Sabha without adopting the Rajya Sabha route.

Finally, the person selected as Prime Minister should not be subjected to any arrangement by which he has to share de facto power with any functionary not provided for in the Constitution because it’s the Prime Minister who is responsible for ensuring that the twin principles of collective responsibility and accountability are strictly followed by the Council of Ministers. Further, the Prime Minister in today’s parliamentary system of government has to function as the leader of a team of ministers whether it is single party government or a coalition and, therefore, any dilution of power at that level will weaken the institution of Prime Minister and the system of parliamentary democracy itself.

P.C. Alexander was former governor of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra