Prime Minister and Council of Ministers

The Prime Minister is the most important functionary of the government, because the President acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers, which the Prime Minister heads.

• The Prime Minister must have the support of a majority in the Lok Sabha. This support makes the office powerful; losing it means losing office. For years the leader of the majority Congress party became PM; since 1989, often no party has had a majority, and the PM has been a leader acceptable to most partners of a coalition.
• The President appoints as PM the leader with majority support; the PM then chooses the ministers and allocates their ranks (cabinet minister, minister of state, deputy minister) and portfolios. Chief Ministers do the same in the states.
• The PM and all ministers must be members of Parliament; someone appointed without being an MP must be elected within six months.
• (In the Constituent Assembly, some members, such as Begum Aizaz Rasul, preferred the Swiss system where the legislature elects the executive.)

Size of the Council of Ministers. Before the 91st Amendment (2003), there was no limit, which led to very large councils, and to the temptation to win MPs' support by offering ministerships. The amendment capped the Council at 15 per cent of the total membership of the Lok Sabha (or of the Assembly, in the states).

Collective responsibility. The most important feature of a parliamentary executive is that it is routinely controlled by the legislature. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha: a ministry that loses the Lok Sabha's confidence must resign.

• This rests on cabinet solidarity: a vote of no confidence even against one minister leads to the resignation of the whole Council; a minister who disagrees with a cabinet decision must either accept it or resign.
• The Council cannot exist without the Prime Minister: it comes into being only when the PM takes the oath, and the PM's death or resignation dissolves the whole Council; a single minister's death, dismissal or resignation only creates a vacancy.
• The PM is the link between the Council and the President and Parliament, and must inform the President of all the Council's decisions and legislative proposals. Nehru called the PM 'the linchpin of Government'.
• The PM's power comes from control over the Council, leadership of the Lok Sabha, command over the bureaucracy, access to the media, projection during elections, and the role of national leader in international summits.

Coalitions changed the picture. Since 1989, many coalition governments have not lasted their full term. This has: increased the President's discretion in choosing PMs; required much more consultation among partners, eroding prime-ministerial authority; limited the PM's freedom to choose ministers and portfolios; and made policies the result of negotiation and compromise, so the PM acts more as a negotiator.

At the state level, the parliamentary system is similar, except that the Governor, appointed by the President on the central government's advice, has more discretionary powers than the President.

Example (new): if a cabinet decides to raise a fee and one minister publicly campaigns against it while staying in office, collective responsibility is broken; the minister should first argue inside the cabinet, and resign if they cannot accept the decision.