Parliamentary System

Parliamentary System

Open Ended

How did the colonial rule induced UAF when India got independence?

Multiple Choice

The Parliament of India (Sansad) consists of

• Lok Sabha

• President

• Rajya Sabha

• All of the above

Parliament of India

• The Parliament of India (Sansad) is the supreme law-making institution.

• The Indian Parliament has - The Lok Sabha , The Rajya Sabha and the Parliament

• Lok Sabha (House of the People), with a total membership of 545, is presided over by the Speaker.

• Rajya Sabha (Council of States), with a total strength of 245 members, is chaired by the Vice-President of India. 

Open Ended

How do we decide who will form the government ?

Who form the Government

• After the Lok Sabha elections, a list is prepared showing how many MPs belong to each political party.

• For a political party to form the government, they must have a majority of elected MPs.

• Since there are 543 elected (plus 2 Anglo-Indian nominated) members in Lok Sabha, to have a majority a party should have at least half the number i.e. 272 members or more

• The Opposition in Parliament is formed by all the political parties that oppose the majority party/coalition formed. The largest amongst these parties is called the Opposition party.

Prime Minister and his Cabinet

• The Prime Minister of India is the leader of the ruling party in the Lok Sabha

• From the MPs who belong to her party, the Prime Minister selects ministers to work with her to implement decisions. 

• These ministers then take charge of different areas of government functioning like health, education, finance etc.

Open Ended

Who will be present for discussions in the Lok Sabha?

Open Ended

What is a Coalition Government ?

Coalition Government

Often times in the recent past it has been difficult for a single political party to get the majority that is required to form the government. They then join together with different political parties who are interested in similar concerns to form what is known as a coalition government.

Rajya Sabha

• The Rajya Sabha functions primarily as the representative of the states of India in the Parliament.

• The Rajya Sabha can also initiate legislation and a bill is required to pass through the Rajya Sabha in order to become a law. 

• uTherefore, has an important role of reviewing and altering (if alterations are needed) the laws initiated by the Lok Sabha. 

• uThe members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of various states. 

• uThere are 233 elected members plus 12 members nominated by the President.

Multiple Choice

What did universal adult franchise mean

• Right to vote

• Right to freedom

• Right to equality

• Right to adult freedom

Multiple Choice

Rajya sabha is also called

• Parliament

• House of people

• Council of states

• None of these

Multiple Choice

Houses of people is _______

• Lok sabha

• Vidhan sabha

• Rajya sabha

• Parliament

Multiple Choice

Rajya sabha has ________ members

• 245

• 250

• 238

• 219

Multiple Choice

How many members are nominated in Rajya sabha by president?

• 10

• 12

• 15

• 25

Multiple Choice

How many members are nominated in Lok sabha by president?

• 2

• 7

• 5

• 10

Multiple Choice

Each constituencies elected

• 1 person to the parliament

• 2 person to the parliament

• 3 person to the parliament

• 4 person to the parliament

To Control, Guide and Inform the Government

• The Parliament, while in session, begins with a question hour. 

• uThe question hour is an important mechanism through which MPs can elicit information about the working of the government. 

• This is a very important way through which the Parliament controls the executive. By asking questions the government is alerted to its shortcomings, and also comes to know the opinion of the people through their representatives in the Parliament, i.e. the MPs. 

To Control, Guide and Inform the Government

• Asking questions of the government is a crucial task for every MP. 

• The Opposition parties play a critical role in the healthy functioning of a democracy. They highlight drawbacks in various policies and programmes of the government and mobilise popular support for their own policies

• uThe government gets valuable feedback and is kept on its toes by the questions asked by the MPs. 

Multiple Choice

The function of the Legislative

• Make laws

• Control Inform and Guide the executive

• Form the Executive

• All of the above

Open Ended

Why do you think there are so few women in Parliament?

Reservations

Parliament now has more and more people from different backgrounds. For example, there are more rural members as also members from many regional parties. Groups and peoples that were till now unrepresented are beginning to get elected to Parliament. There has also been an increase in political participation from the Dalits and backward classes.It has been observed that representative democracy cannot produce a perfect reflection of society. There is a realisation that when interests and experiences separate us it is important to ensure that communities that have been historically marginalised are given adequate representation. With this in mind, some seats are reserved in Parliament for SCs and STs. This has been done so that the MPs elected from these constituencies will be familiar with and can represent Dalit and Adivasi interests in Parliament.

Proposed Reservation for women

Similarly, it has more recently been suggested that there should be reservation of seats for women. This issue is still being debated. Sixty years ago, only four per cent of MPs were women and today it is just above nine per cent. This is a small share when you consider the fact that half the population are women.

Multiple Choice

The parliament is begin with _______

• Question hour

• Zero hour

• Both (a) & (b)

• None of these