The question of the president's political obligations

Sinha M A Sayeed

The words "President" and "Head of State" had first been used in the Constitution of India, that came into force in 1952, to make a clear conceptual distinction between elected and hereditary head of state in a parliamentary system of government.

Article 52 reads: "There shall be a President of India," and Article 54 reads: "The President shall be elected by the members of an electoral college consisting of -- (a) the elected members of both Houses of Parliament; and (b) the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of States."

Such constitutional provisions for elections to the office of the president of India do not directly calls for the president's political obligations, but they clearly indicate the existence of a kind of political obligation of the president to the majority party/coalition in Parliament.

Since independence in 1947, the Parliaments of India have elected thirteen presidents, including the incumbent Protibha Patil, and it is on record that they, excepting one or two, more or less listened to the party/coalition that backed them for the august office.

Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first president, was not nominated for a second term because he was not "responsible nor responsive" to Congress and in particular to Jawaharlal Nehru, the charismatic leader of India in whose hand the leadership of party, leadership of parliament, and leadership of cabinet mingled uniquely.

The same thing happened to Dr Radhakrishnan, widely known as a philosopher-president, and the worst was the case of President Zail Singh, whose relationship with Premier Rajiv Gandhi came down to the lowest ebb when Rajiv felt that President Gyani Zail Sing was becoming less responsive to his call.

The way the mind of the president worked is revealed in an Urdu couplet, which he recited, entirely out of context, at a farewell meeting with reporters in Bangalore on July 14, 1987:

"Main jin haathon men phool ke guldaste de kar aya tha,

Ab wohi haath patthar le kar meri talash men hain."

(The hands in which I had placed a bouquet of flowers are today after me with a stone).

Similarly, the Constitution of Bangladesh does not contain any article or clause under the heading "political obligations" hanging over the head of the president; but the seeds of such obligations are rooted in Articles 48(1) and 50(2), which, for the sake of clarity, need to be attended to.

Article 48(1) reads: "There shall be a President of Bangladesh who shall be elected by members of Parliament in accordance with law."

Therefore, it is clear that a person, partisan or not, requires substantial backing by the majority party/coalition in Parliament for being elected as president of Bangladesh. The major opposition party/coalition in Parliament may also make such an exercise futile or symbolic, in a race with its own nominee, while an independent presidential candidate is also available sometime.

Here we find two opposing stands: one is the stand of the party/coalition in power which implies that a person elected as president cannot, in most cases, but be loyal to it and, in particular, to the chief of the party/coalition who is usually also Leader of the House and head of the government; the other being the opposition's futile demand that a person elected as president on a party line mustn't be enchained by loyalty (to the party/coalition that backed him) while discharging his functions.

Practically speaking, the twelfth amendment to the constitution has, in fact, become a kind of prime ministerial dictatorship in the disguise of a parliamentary system of government due to the failure in carrying out necessary reforms in other sectors in the system.

This, in particular, necessitates removal of the concentration of all the three leading officesleadership in party, leadership in parliament and leadership in cabinetfrom the hands of one leader.

The one-man show, or so-called charismatic leadership, in our parliamentary system has not allowed for the growth of a viable, strong, institutional model anywhere in our context. Politics within a party is a wonderful, unique, non-competitive playground for him/her; what she/he says is final; what she/he thinks is historic; what she/he orders must be obeyed without question; any sort of deviation amounts to a gross violation, the resultant consequence of which is well known to all.

Therefore, nomination of a president certainly depends on the choice of the charismatic leader of all-encompassing power, and it is vividly conspicuous from the past exercises that hardly any nationally outstanding personality with a high degree of integrity, acceptability, and relevant background was chosen.

We experienced with a sense of frustration that when President Professor Dr. B Chowdhury, founder Secretary General of BNP, perhaps wanted to change things, he had to leave Bangabhaban. The reasons for such a silent departure may be a subject matter for researchers, but, apparently, it was his decision not to face the challenge constitutionally because of Article 52, which deals with impeachment of the president. We have also seen how justice- turned-president Shahabuddin Ahmed grappled in vain with the Hasina administration.

In fact, application of Article 48(1) is the sole jurisdiction of the chief of party, wearing three caps together. For better functioning of the office of the president of our hand-earned Republic, this article needs to be changed to the effect that: "No person shall hold at a time more than one of the three offices of leadership, leadership of party, leadership in Parliament and leadership of cabinet." Yes, it is, in the context of Bangladesh, an urgent, unavoidable, necessity indeed.

Article 50(2) reads: "No person shall hold office as president for more than two terms, whether or not the terms are consecutive."

It is also understandable that a president, sitting or past, cannot further be supported to continue for a second term without the confidence of the majority party/coalition in Parliament and, truly speaking, such a confidence depends on his overall loyalty-based performance either as immediate past president or past president, not as a president who showed his excellence otherwise.

No person has yet been nominated and elected for a second term as president, although the BNP-led alliance had been voted to power for a third term after the farcical so-called victory in the 1996 voter-less elections to the sixth parliament.

There was a strong rumour in 1996 that Abdur Raman Biswas, then president of Bangladesh, had been tempted by the ruling BNP for a second term to the presidency, provided he followed what it said. Perhaps, it is also true that he followed accordingly; but due to the 24-month long-standing crisis that took the country almost to the point of collapse, the newly constituted BNP government was so short-lived that the possibility of President Abdur Rahman Biswas of being nominated and elected for a second term could not be tested.

But, had things been otherwise, there was such a possibility! Therefore, a constitutional provision must be made to the effect that: "No person shall be president for more than one term." Or "No person shall be president for two terms consecutively."

Sinha M A Sayeed is a senior fellow of Centre for Governance Studies faculty member of Newcastle Law Academy.