How does the Parliament Control the Executive?

In a parliamentary system, the executive is drawn from whichever party, or coalition of parties, commands a majority in the Lok Sabha. This arrangement makes it fairly easy for the executive to exercise wide, even arbitrary, power so long as it retains that majority — if Parliament is not active and vigilant, a parliamentary democracy can slide into what is sometimes called Cabinet dictatorship, where the Cabinet leads and the House does little more than follow. Keeping this from happening is the whole point of Parliament's power to control the executive, and there are several distinct instruments through which this control is exercised.

Underlying all of these instruments is one basic guarantee: the power and freedom of legislators, as the people's elected representatives, to work and speak effectively and without fear. No action can be taken against a member of the legislature for anything said inside the House — this protection is known as parliamentary privilege, and the presiding officer of the legislature has the final authority to decide any case involving an alleged breach of privilege. The whole purpose of such privileges is to let members genuinely represent the people and exercise real, unafraid control over the executive, rather than a merely symbolic one. …