The Indian Political System

India is a Sovereign, Secular, Democratic Republic with a Parliamentary form of Government. 2. The Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November 1949 3. The constitution came into force on 26th November 1950. 4.

The Constitution advocated the trinity of justice, liberty and equality for all the citizens. 5. The Constitution was framed keeping in mind the socioeconomic progress of the country. 6.

India follows a parliamentary form of democracy and the government is federal in structure. . In Indian political system, the President is the constitutional head of the executive of the Union of India. 8. The real executive power is with the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.

9. According to the Article 74(1) of the constitution, the Council of Ministers under the leadership of the Prime Minister is responsible to aid and assist the President in exercising the Presidents function. 10. The Council of ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha, the House of People. 11.In states the Governor is the representative of the President, though the real executive power is with the Chief Minister along with his Council of Ministers.

12. For a given state the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible for the elected legislative assembly of the state. 13. The Constitution administrates the sharing of legislative power between Parliament and the State Legislatures.

14. The Parliament has the power to amend the Constitution. Political Party system A recognized political party has been classified as a National Party or a State Party.If a political party is recognized in four or more states, it is considered as a National Party. The Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) are the prominent National Parties in the Country.

Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh, Asom Gana Parishad in Assam, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Bihar, Maharashtrwad Gomantak Party in Goa, National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir, Muslim League in Kerala, Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Akali Dal in Punjab , All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam inTamil Nadu, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and All-India Forward Block in West Bengal are the prominent state parties. Eleven Lok Sabhas have been constituted so far. Except for the short-lived Sixth and Ninth Lok Sabha, the Congress Party ruled the country. The Sixth Lok Sabha functioned for about two years and four months and the Ninth Lok Sabha functioned for one year and two months.

Even in the states, the regional parties or the non-congress parties have gained in importance over the years. India has emerged as an independent nation after bloody partition .After independence princely states became part of the country. The constitution declared India as union of states, it was based on the principles of federalism. The constitution originally provided two-tier system of govt.

—the union or central govt. ,representing the union of India and the state govt. Third tier of federalism was added in the form of Panchayat and Municipalities- These tiers enjoy separate jurisdictions and constitutions provided three fold distribution of Legislative power between the union government and the state government in the form of three lists.Has subjects of national importance.

b)Subjects--Defence, Foreign affairs, Banking, Communication and Currency. c)They are included because we need a uniform policy on these throughout the country. d)Union govt. can alone make laws on this list.

STATE LIST:a) Contains subjects of state and local importance. b)Subjects- Police,Trade, Commerce, Agriculture and Irrigation. c)State govt. can alone make laws on the list.

Include subjects of common interests to both union govt. and state govt. -contains subjects as education , forests, trade unions, marriage, adoption and sucession. --both union as well as state govt. s can make laws in it. --but in case of conflict the lae made by the union govt.

prevails. :Subjects which do not fall in any of these three lists. --new subjects like computer software that came up after constitution. --according to the our constitution the union govt.

has the power to legislate on these residuary subjects. Our constitution has not given equal power to the contituent units.Thus all states in the Indian union do not have identical powers. 1. --some states enjoy special status--J&K has its own constitution; many provisions of the Indian constitution are not applicable to this state with the approval of state Assembly.

--Indians who are not permanent residents of this state can not buy a house or land here. 2. There are some states which enjoy very little power. --these are the areas which are too small to become an independent states but could not be merged with any of the existing states. -Theseareas are like chandighar, or Lakshadweep or the capital city of Delhi, are called Unoin Territories.

--these territories do not have the powers of state. --the central govt. has special powers in running these states. QHow can we change the power sharing arrangement? A. Power sharing of the govt.

between union & state govt. is basic to the structure of constitution. It is not easy to make changes in the power sharing arrangement. --Parliament can not, on its own change this arrangement. Any change has to be first passed by both houses of parliament with at least two-third majority.Then it is to be ratified by the legislatures of at least half of the total states.

, plays an important role in overseeing the implementation if the constitutional provisions& procedures. --in case of any dispute about the division of power, High courts &Supreme court makes a decision. SOURCE OF INCOME--the union &the state govts. have the power to raise resources by levying taxes in order to carry on the govt. & the resposibilities assignedto each of them.