Article 78, Personified

Article 78 of our constitution talks about the duties of the Prime Minister with respect to furnishing information to the President.In a way this is only article which talks about the relationship between two most important executives of our country.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. Rajendra Prassad were the first to portray these two roles in Indian polity.And boy, they did set the standards pretty high so much so that no other pair has attained those levels of understanding and respect for each other. What helped was, they were very good friends and had known each other since long and cooperated in the national freedom struggle. Both maintained a cordial relationship between the two offices and maintained their sanctity.

Then was the era of the charismatic Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who undermined the office of the president.She even went to the extreme of making office of the President a mere rubber stamp by imposing on him the advice of Council of Ministers as binding by the 42th amendment act.Later though, the President was given some discretion. So in her tenure, there was hardly any coordination between the two offices. No retaliation came from the office of the President due to weak incumbents. The relationship worsened in the times of Rajiv Gandhi and Giani Zail Singh.They became almost anti to each other which was very destructive for the smooth functioning of the government.

When P.V.Narasimha Rao came into power, although there were no difference per se with the President but there were hardly any exchanges. He was such a deep thinker and silent personality that he would have taken the whole day to update the President on a single matter. And hence things didn't work out at such low pace. Although then came a time when we can say that the relationship somewhat revived in the times of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam. They it seems used to communicate well and enjoyed working with each other.But the press ridiculed it by saying that it is just because of the fact that both are bachelors and have nothing to do at the end of the working day. Whatever may be the reason, the country did benefit under their leaderships for sure.

At present, we have a Prime Minister who has not spoken since he advocated the liberalization process in the 1990s. And to his misery we have a lady President. Imagine how difficult it is for Manmohan Singh to coordinate with the office of President. What is required today, is the presence of strong, statesman and visionary leaders in both of the offices who can rise above the petty politics and assert a dream to carry India ahead on their strong shoulders.