Prime Minister and Council of Ministers

No discussion of government or politics in India would take place without mentioning the office of the Prime Minister. As we have already seen, the President exercises power only on the advice of the Council of Ministers, and the Council of Ministers is headed by the Prime Minister — so, as head of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister becomes the most important functionary of government in the country.

In the parliamentary form, it is essential that the Prime Minister have the support of the majority in the Lok Sabha; this majority support is also what makes the Prime Minister powerful, and the moment this support is lost, the Prime Minister loses office. For many years after Independence, the Congress party held the Lok Sabha majority, and its leader became Prime Minister. Since 1989, there have been many occasions when no single party held a majority; various political parties came together and formed a coalition with a majority in the House, and in such situations a leader acceptable to most of the coalition's partners becomes Prime Minister. Formally, a leader with majority support is appointed Prime Minister by the President.

The Prime Minister then decides who will be the ministers in the Council of Ministers, and allocates ranks and portfolios — cabinet minister, minister of State, or deputy minister — depending on the seniority and political importance of each individual; Chief Ministers of the States choose ministers from their own party or coalition in the same way. The Prime Minister and all ministers must be members of Parliament; a person who becomes a minister or Prime Minister without already being an MP must get elected to Parliament within six months. A well-known cartoon by Shankar (22 August 1954) shows the Prime Minister literally leading a procession of ministers through the Lok Sabha door — illustrating that there is no Council of Ministers without the Prime Minister, who quite literally "leads" the Council.

A related historical debate, recorded in the Constituent Assembly Debates, is worth knowing: some members, such as Begum Aizaz Rasul, felt ministers should be elected by the legislature rather than selected by the Prime Minister or Chief Minister, and pointed to the Swiss system, under which the legislature elects the executive using a single transferable vote, as "the best form of government for the provinces" because it ensures all interests are represented and no party feels unrepresented. This alternative was ultimately not adopted; the Constitution instead gives the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers the power to select their own ministers.

Before the 91st Amendment Act (2003), the size of the Council of Ministers was determined only by the exigencies of the time and the situation, which often led to very large Councils — especially when no party had a clear majority, there was a temptation to win over the support of members of Parliament (or of a State Assembly) by giving them ministerial positions, since there was no restriction on Council size, a pattern seen in many States too. The 91st Amendment therefore capped the Council of Ministers at not more than 15 percent of the total membership of the House of the People (or the Assembly, for States).

The most important feature of the parliamentary executive is that it remains routinely under the control and supervision of the legislature. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha: a Ministry that loses the confidence of the Lok Sabha is obliged to resign. This principle shows that the Ministry functions as an executive committee of Parliament, governing collectively on its behalf. Collective responsibility rests on the principle of the solidarity of the cabinet — a vote of no-confidence even against a single minister brings down the entire Council of Ministers, and a minister who disagrees with a cabinet policy or decision must either accept it or resign; it is binding on all ministers to support the policies for which there is collective responsibility.

In India, the Prime Minister enjoys a pre-eminent place in government. The Council of Ministers cannot exist without the Prime Minister; it comes into existence only after the Prime Minister has taken the oath of office. The death or resignation of the Prime Minister automatically brings about the dissolution of the entire Council of Ministers, whereas the demise, dismissal, or resignation of an ordinary minister creates only a ministerial vacancy. The Prime Minister acts as the link between the Council of Ministers on the one hand, and the President as well as Parliament on the other — a role that led Pt. Nehru to describe the Prime Minister as "the linchpin of Government." It is also the Prime Minister's constitutional obligation to communicate to the President all decisions of the Council of Ministers relating to the administration of the Union's affairs and proposals for legislation, and the Prime Minister is involved in all crucial government decisions and policies. The power wielded by the Prime Minister flows from several sources: control over the Council of Ministers, leadership of the Lok Sabha, command over the bureaucratic machine, access to the media, projection of personality during elections, and projection as a national leader during international summitry and foreign visits. …