critically analyse the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.500 words
Answers
Components:
The Indian Parliament consists of two houses called as Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha respectively and the President of India. Concurrence of all the three is required to pass any legislative business.
Lok Sabha :
Lok Sabha (in Hindi) is also known as the "House of the People" or the lower house. Almost all of its members are directly elected by citizens of India. Every citizen who is over 18 years of age, irrespective of gender, caste, religion or race, who is otherwise not disqualified, is eligible to vote.
The Lok Sabha can have up to 552 members as envisaged in the Constitution of India. It has a term of five years. To be eligible for membership in the Lok Sabha, a person must be a citizen of India and must be 25 years of age or older, mentally sound, should not be bankrupt and has no criminal procedures against him/her.
Up to 530 members can be elected from the states in single member districts, up to 20 members from the Union territories and no more than two members from the community can be nominated by the President of India if the president feels that the Anglo-Indian community is not adequately represented. The Lok Sabha has 545 members; some seats are reserved for representatives of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Rajya Sabha:
The Rajya Sabha is also known as "Council of States" or the upper house. Its members are indirectly elected by members of legislative bodies of the States.
The Rajya Sabha has 250 members in all. Elections to it are scheduled and the chamber cannot be dissolved. Each member has a term of 6 years and elections are held for one-third of the seats after every 2 years.
i. Representatives of States are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of the State in accordance with system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
ii. Representatives of Union Territories are indirectly elected by members of an electoral college for that territory in accordance with system of proportional representation.