You can see how AG changed his views in 6 days depending upon how it was
put up to him to seek his opinion
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP/2010/01/23&PageLabel=13&EntityId=Ar01300&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
Clash of titans that strengthened India
India’s first PM and President often differed over their respective powers,
and in the process, laid a strong foundation for our parliamentary democracy
Subhash C Kashyap
It will forever remain an intriguing ‘what if’ of history. But I believe
that if Jawaharlal Nehru had been India’s first President and Rajendra
Prasad its first Prime Minister, our political system would today be more
presidential than parliamentary without any change in the Constitution.
As the top two functionaries of a nascent Republic, India’s first PM and
President often clashed over their respective powers. Through these
conflicts, the polity itself was being determined and the Constitution
tested and shaped in practice. And what was settled in each case
strengthened the concepts of parliamentary democracy, ministerial
responsibility and prime ministerial authority.
There could hardly be two personalities more strikingly different from
each other. Nehru was a modernist and a liberal with a commitment to
secularism and socialism, while Prasad, a brilliant intellectual himself,
was a religious minded man with a traditional and conservative approach.
Differences among the two over their respective role perceptions and
relationship with each other arose soon after the Republic was created.
President Prasad in a note to Prime Minister Nehru on March 21, 1950 raised
several issues. Among them were his powers to act independently of the
advice of the council of ministers to veto a Bill passed by Houses of
Parliament and to act in consultation with secretaries to government of
India. Days later, on March 27, 1950, Prasad went a step ahead and sought
the opinion of Attorney-General M C Setalvad on the constitutional position
of the President.
Setalvad replied that the President had the right to dismiss the
ministry and dissolve Parliament. Armed with the AG’s opinion, Prasad wrote
to Nehru on September 18, 1951, raising a number of points. Among other
things, Prasad said the President had the power to withhold assent to Bills,
that he could dismiss a minister or the ministry, dissolve Parliament and
order fresh general elections. Prasad added that he was not bound to act on
the advice of the council of ministers “against the decision of the state
authority even in matters falling exclusively within the latter’s
jurisdiction”.
Nehru also referred these points to the A-G. Interestingly, by then,
Setalvad seemed to have revised his opinion. In his note of September 24,
1951, he said the powers of the President can be exercised by him only with
the aid and advice of his ministers and added that the President could not
dismiss a council of ministers enjoying the confidence of the House and
order general elections. He, however, added that the President could
exercise the reserve power of ordering fresh elections if he strongly felt
the Parliament did not reflect the political balance in the country. Nehru
also sought the advice of Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar, who too did not approve
of the position taken by the President. Prasad did not press the point
further.
As Durga Das puts it, “the concern for the proprieties of public
conduct” prevented a crisis in the President-PM relationship coming into the
open. Nehru and Prasad understood each other well. Both were prepared to
yield, to compromise and cooperate. Nehru made it a point to meet the
President every Monday morning to keep him informed about matters of state
and even accommodated his nominees as ministers.
As for their differences, neither made it a matter of personal prestige.
What was being fought over was the nature of India’s polity.
READ BETWEEN THE LINES: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is administered the oath of
office as Prime Minister of India by President Rajendra Prasad, in New Delhi
on January 26, 1950
