Why India Needs the Presidential System

by Bhanu Dhamija

Overview

'Well written, solidly researched and cogently argued'

--Shashi Tharoor

 

'Bhanu has ably argued the case'

--Kuldip Nayar

 

'This timely book... looks at the many advantages of the presidential system.'

--Shanta Kumar

At one time or another, Dr Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, M.A. Jinnah, Sardar Patel and many other top leaders strongly opposed India's adoption of the parliamentary system. History has proven them right. Given its diversity, size, and communal and community divisions, the country needed a truly federal setup -- not the centralized unitary control that the parliamentary system offers.Why India Needs the Presidential System tells the dramatic story of how India's current system of government evolved, how it is at the root of the problems India faces. The result of years of meticulous research, this book makes a passionate plea for a radical rethink of India's future as a nation. Why India Needs the Presidential System is not just an expose of what is wrong, but a serious effort at offering a possible solution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789351363477
Publisher:	Collins
Publication date:	10/15/2015
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Bhanu Dhamija is the founder and chairman of the Divya Himachal Group, the largest newspaper publishing company in Himachal Pradesh, India. Earlier, in America, Dhamija founded a media company that published trade journals and organized conferences for the magazine publishing industry, becoming in effect a 'publishers' publisher'.He was born in Bulandshehar (UP) in 1959, but has lived almost half his life in the United States. After attending Punjab University in Chandigarh, he acquired a postgraduate degree from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He has worked in the financial, computer and media industries in the US and India. While in the US, Dhamija married an American and soon after they moved with their three children to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 The System of Government Matters 1

2 British System Was Deceptively Attractive 38

3 Predilection for a Parliamentary System 66

4 Nehru Decides; Snubs Gandhi and Patel 91

5 A System Favoured by Party Oligarchs 113

6 A Major Reversal in the Constituent Assembly 137

7 A Case of Systemic Failure 150

8 India's System Is 'Rotten' to the Core 184

9 Americans Reinvented Government 216

10 A Different Approach to Government 257

11 Towards Better Governance 276

12 Repelling Authoritarianism 312

13 The Dissipation of Prejudices 323

14 Presidential System: The Answer to India's Problems 338

Select Bibliography 350

Index 357