The recent decade has witnessed many coalitions, unstable governments and hung parliament. The parliamentary system has suffered a rapid decline mainly owing to efforts on the part of our politicians to subvert the system in the name of democracy.
Mushrooming of political parties has also resulted in a large scale erosion of political values owing to growth in electoral malpractices. Emergence of regional parties and multi-party system at the centre further in fumigate the problem. In late 80s we witnessed three successive governments in a short span. Again in mid 90’s we had coalition governments and a minority government of congress.
These developments are not good either for our democracy or for our growth and development. Crores of rupees are lost during elections. Personal ambition of politician, criminalisation of politics has done no good. Increasing unaccountability of executive to the legislature has been reflected in the hung parliament. Horse trading of MPs and defection has become common. Even within ruling coalitions the PM’s post is fiercely contested. All these factors have led to instability at the centre.
In Presidential form, there exists single executive which can prove advantageous. There is great scope for stability as the system prescribes term of office limits. The executive can follow long term programme as the head of the state cannot be ousted by reasons like defection or loss of majority.
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The Presidential system is free of party control. There is a clear cut division of power between legislature and executive and they don’t interfere in each others sphere. But there are fears of autocracy, deadlock, less-responsibility and non-coordination in this form. Thus looking at the socio-ethnic diversity of India long and deep deliberation is needed before we switch over to the Presidential form. Electoral reform within the parliamentary system could be one solution.