Barack Obama addressed the Members of Parliament at a Joint Session of both houses at the Parliament of India, 2010. Wikicommons/ Government of India. Some rights reserved.
Democracy is a form of government understood to revolve around the consent of the governed. In a parliamentary democracy, this principle is enshrined by enabling citizens to elect legislators, who then go on to appoint the executive, consisting of a council of ministers headed by the Prime Minister or Chief Minister. This system essentially requires the executive to be accountable to the legislature which is presumed to reflect the will of the people.
While the framers of the Constitution in their wisdom felt that the parliamentary democracy model was the one best suited to India, I believe that on close examination the current system does not embody the consent of the governed even when this is calculated with a significantly low threshold.
