Parliamentary Executive in India

When India's Constitution was written, the country already had experience of running a parliamentary system under the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935 — experience which showed that, in a parliamentary system, the executive can be effectively controlled by the elected representatives of the people. The Constitution's makers wanted a government sensitive to public expectations, responsible, and accountable, and were wary of the presidential alternative, which places heavy emphasis on the president as chief executive and carries a real danger of a personality cult developing. They wanted a strong executive branch but with enough safeguards against that danger, and the parliamentary form provides many such mechanisms — so the Constitution adopted the parliamentary system of executive for governments at both the national and State levels. …