The Book thief

When death has a story to tell, you listen.

We are introduced to Death-as-a-storyteller at the beginning of Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief”. This is no Grim Reaper but a kinder, gentler Death, who has sympathy for the souls he takes away. As Death himself puts it, “I can be Amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that’s only the A’s.” 

About

This book isn’t about Death, it’s about death, it’s about 1939, Nazi Germany. It’s about how the country is holding its breath. But principally, it’s about Liesel Meminger, whose little brother dies and her mom leaves her with her foster parents in a dismal town of Munich. 

Her foster father, Hans Hubermann, the implausibly saintly man, who beautifully plays the accordion and also taught Liesel to read and write in the dark of the night.   

And her foster mom, Rosa Hubermann, who beats Liesel, and uses foul language, and refers to her husband and foster daughter as ‘filthy pigs’. But still, she cares for Liesel, and as Death eventually tells us, “She was a good woman for a crisis.”

Liesel finds ways of coping with her losses. She becomes a thief. She commits her first crime at the brother’s funeral when she steals “The Grave Digger’s Handbook”. While she sometimes joins a gang to steal food and stuff, her passion is only for books. She doesn’t care if it’s a good book or a bad book, she just cares for the book.

The story appears a bit slow until Max Vandenburg, a Jewish boxer, arrives at the Hubermann’s doorstep. It turns out that Hans’s accordion is actually a debt to Erik Vandenburg, Max’s father, a friend who saved Hans’s life in the war. So when Max shows up at the Hubermann’s door, one of his first question to Hans is whether he still plays the accordion. Hans feels that the only way he can repay Erik is by helping Max to hide from the Nazis.

Max and Liesel become very good friends. They have much in common, their love for reading, for writing, for fighting. They both suffer from nightmares. While Liesel’s grief is not that complicated, she must live with her mother’s choices. Max must live with his own. 

The power of words

Words and books hold tremendous value in ‘The Book Thief’. Various examples of how words connect people turn up throughout the novel. Learning the alphabets and creating words is how Liesel and Hans developed their deep bond. Liesel describing the outside weather to Max is what established the bond of friendship between them. The best gift Max gives Liesel is “The Word Shaker”, a story he writes for her. In it, he tells her that words are the strongest force there is, indicated by the fact the Hitler used the power of words to take over the world. The story narrates how Liesel uses her words to create a refuge for herself in the midst of Nazism, and how Max was able to find shelter in her words as well.

The Duality of Humans

Everything in Nazi Germany is upside down. Sounds are seen, visions are tasted, death has a heart, winners lose, and the chance you got for survival is maybe in a concentration camp. 

The book shows a varying amount of people’s kindness and cruelty. There were small acts of kindness like Ilsa Hermann inviting Liesel to her library and Rudy giving his teddy bear to the dying pilot. The more dramatic act of kindness was Hubermann’s hiding and caring for Max, making him feel like a part of their family. Meanwhile, the concentration camps lingering unseen in the background is the most extreme example of cruelty. 

Liesel and her Books

Liesel developed from a powerless girl to a more mature person in due course of the book. Her first encounter with books comes at her brother’s funeral, where she steals a book but is unable to read it and feels powerless at the time. But when Hans teaches her how to read and write, she gains power over the books, and her character also develops. This development is highlighted by her friendship with Max. She began reading to him as a way to comfort him. Eventually, books became a shelter for Liesel, a way to feel in control. Max sums up Liesel’s use of books as a refuge in the story, ‘The Word Shaker’. Liesel began reading to people to give them some comfort when they were all trapped in the bomb shelter during the airstrikes. 

In the end, it’s her book, that in a way saved her life when she was working on it in the basement when the bombs fell on Himmel Street. 

“The Book Thief” gives us hope. Hope in the form of Liesel, who grows into a wonderful and generous person despite the sufferings all around her, who becomes a human even Death loves.

This is a kind of book that can be life-changing. It is unsettling and unsentimental, yet poetic. It’s like a tragedy that runs through the reader’s mind like a black-and-white movie. But even then  “The Book Thief” manages to offer us a believable hard-won hope.

Some Heart Touching Quotes

“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.”

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”

“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”

“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.”

“Even death has a heart.”

“If only she could be so oblivious again, to feel such love without knowing it, mistaking it for laughter. ”

“She was saying goodbye and she didn’t even know it.”

“A small fact:

You are going to die….does this worry you?”

“I have to say that although it broke my heart, I was, and still am, glad I was there.”

“Somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out.”

“People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.”

“One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.”

“Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.”

Comparative Politics

What is comparative politics and it is strategies?

Comparative politics is the take a look at and settlement of home Politics throughout Countries.It is particularly Inter Disclipinary.It is a subfield of Politics.It usually goal to Promote assessment in politics entities.It makes a speciality of Internal Structure.(like Parliament and executives),actor(voters,parties,hobby groups),processes(coverage making, communication,political culture).In totality,we are able to say that via way of means of Comparative politics we spotlight the inner Political Structure of every state;Their governing functions,what and the way choices are made and additionally how political areas are made,who have an effect on the political choices,how authorities engage with population.

According to John Blondel, Comparative politics is”the take a look at of styles of country wide governments withinside the cutting-edge world”.Comparative Governments goal is to sell universally legitimate concept.In different words,we are able to say that Comparative politics is the subfield of political technology that compares the pursuit of electricity throughout countries.

Need for Comparative politics-

1.We want Comparative politics to higher recognize how positive regimes paintings for functions of global members of the family and overseas coverage.

2.It permits us to examine from different countries.

3.One may have a deeper know-how of Merits and Demerits.

4.It permits us to emerge as greater knowledgeable citizens.

5.It sharpen our important thinking.

Methods of Comparative Politics

There are strategies of Comparative politics which are as follows-

A.Traditional technique-It is particularly typical earlier than Fifties and conventional technique specially focus on theoretical take a look at of subject.i.e.,numerous kinds of organization or authorities,and their powers.
Features of Traditional technique-

1.Traditional technique is particularly slender in scope.

2.Traditional technique is specially primarily based totally on Formal and legal.

3.Traditional technique is procial.

4.Tradtional tactics are by and large normative and stresses on cost of politics.

5.It made little or no strive to narrate concept and research.

There are many kinds of Traditional tactics-1.Philosophical Approach

2.Historical Approach

3.Institutional Approach

4.Legal Approach

B.Modern Method-The political philosophers afterward found out the want to take a look at politics from a brand new viewpoint.These tactics are specially worried with medical take a look at of politics.The first innovation on this regard comes with the appearance of Behavioural Revolution in political technology.

Features of Modern Approaches-

1.These tactics draw end from empirical data

2.These tactics pass past the take a look at of political systems and it is ancient analysis.

3.Modern tactics consider in inter-disciplinary take a look at.

4.They pressure medical strategies of take a look at and try to draw medical conclusions in Political technology.

There are many kinds of Modern approach-1.Political monetary approach2.System approach3.Behavioural approach4.Structural-Functional

Shakespeare’s History Plays

Many of Shakespeare’s plays have historical elements, but only certain plays are categorized as true Shakespeare histories. The “history plays” written by Shakespeare are generally thought of as a distinct genre: they differ somewhat in tone, form, and focus from his other plays (the “comedies,” the “tragedies” and the “romances”). Shakespeare’s history play can be divided into two types those dealing with English history and those dealing with Roman history. For the first type, Shakespeare borrowed materials from the English chronicles plays of the period. Marlowe and Peele had written historical plays and chronicle history was popular at that time because it flattered the patriotic spirit of the English. When converted into dramatic form, chronicle history gave opportunities for striking action and enabled the playwrights to freely mingle the comic and the tragic. Shakespeare followed the theatrical fashions of the time.

While many of Shakespeare’s other plays are set in the historical past, and even treat similar themes such as kingship and revolution (for example, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, or Cymbeline), the eight history plays have several things in common: they form a linked series, they are set in late medieval England, and they deal with the rise and fall of the House of Lancaster-what later historians often referred to as the “War of the Roses.”

Shakespeare’s most important history plays were written in two “series” of four plays. The first series, written near the start of his career (around 1589-1593), consists of Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 & 3, and Richard III, and covers the fall of the Lancaster dynasty–that is, events in English history between about 1422 and 1485. The second series, written at the height of Shakespeare’s powers (around 1595-1599), moves back in time to examine the rise of the Lancastrians, covering English history from about 1398 to 1420. This series consists of Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, and Henry V.

Shakespeare drew on several different sources in writing his history plays. His primary source for historical material, however, is generally agreed to be Raphael Holinshed’s massive work, The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, published in 1586-7. Holinshed’s account provides the chronology of events that Shakespeare reproduces, alters, compresses, or conveniently avoids-whichever serves his dramatic purposes best. However, Holinshed’s work was only one of an entire genre of historical chronicles that were popular during Shakespeare’s time. He may well have used many other sources as well; for Richard II, for example, more than seven primary sources have been suggested as having contributed to the work.

It is important to remember when reading the history plays, the significance to this genre of what we might call the “shadows of history.” One of the questions which preoccupy the characters in the history plays is whether or not the King of England is divinely appointed by the Lord. If so, then the overthrow or murder of a king is tantamount to blasphemy and may cast a long shadow over the reign of the king who gains the throne through such nefarious means. This shadow, which manifests in the form of literal ghosts in plays like Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III, also looms over Richard II and its sequels.

Characteristics of Romantic Revival

The first half of the nineteenth century records the triumph of romanticism in literature. Newton’s science and Locke’s philosophy were important contributions to the eighteenth-century ethos that made the literature of Pope and Dryden. The revolution of 1789 had violently shaken English thought and aroused liberal ideas in England. Romanticism in the broad sense meant individualism and the revival of imaginative faculty in the matter of literary compositions. Romanticism is described as a return to Nature and ‘the renascence of wonder’. It is the introduction of imagination and a sense of mystery in literature.

Famous poets of the Romanticism Movement

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) endowed Nature with a new meaning and significance. He wrote about familiar common subjects and gave them a light that was never on sea or land. He departed from the gaudy poetic diction and wrote in familiar language as far as practicable. His great contribution to English poetry was the re-interpretation of Nature as a vital entity, a speaking presence, and an acting principle. Wordsworth through his poetry made a revolt against urban-industrial civilization and considered the evils of modern life as stemming from man’s separation from Nature. His long poem, the Prelude, and his poem like Lines Written on Tintern Abbey are eloquent expressions of his philosophy of nature. In short, Wordsworth spearheads the movement against the neo-classical school.

Tintern Abbey

Coleridge (1772-1834) made the supernatural and thereby widened the scope of imaginative understanding. Coleridge introduced into romance a touch of dream and fantasy that increased its unreality and reduced the total living experience to the level of a mere groundwork for a supernatural thrill and a tenuous symbolism. Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Kubla Khan are remarkable for evoking the thrill of the supernatural through suggestive details and witchery of language.

John Keats (1795-1821) added to the basic quality of romance a sensuousness, hunger, and yearning for beauty in all its concrete shapes and forms, a sense of regret and frustration more poignantly felt because rooted in his personal experience. In his poetry, he suggests a contrast between the real world of suffering and frustrations and the imaginative ideal world of dreams and desires and his poetry records his wistful yearning for the ideal world. Keats’ romanticism lies in suggesting the thrill of beauty through sensuous pictures and expressions. His Lamia, the Eve of St Agnes, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Autumn show his romantic aspiration.

The Eve of St. Agnes

Shelley (1792-1822) was the most vital instinct with the pure essence of a romantic spirit. He gave himself up most unreservedly to the impulse and inspiration of the romantic spirit. He had imbibed the explosive forces of the French Revolution and championed the cause of revolution and freedom in every sphere of human life. There is, however, a melancholy note in his poetry which springs from his frustrations and unfulfilled desires. He pined for an ideal world of beauty, love, and freedom but he yearned in vain. He sang of the millennium when evils of life would disappear like patches of clouds. Shelley’s best qualities are revealed in his Prometheus Unbound, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark. He is a lyrical genius par excellence: His poetry is marked by melody and imagery.

Lord Byron (1788-1824) is rightly described as a romantic poet only on the outer fringe of his consciousness. He was affiliated to the Popian tradition by his satiric spirit and adoption of the couplet. Yet he possessed a romantic ardor which is manifested in his upholding the cause of freedom and liberty and in his zeal for expressing his ego-centric consciousness.

The literature of this period was free from restrictions and technicalities. The poets aimed at the spontaneous and exuberant expression of emotions. The Romantic Revival helped the revival of the lyric form marked by its spontaneity and musical qualities. It allowed a free play of imagination. There was variety and individuality in the literature of the Romantic Revival. The poets of the period chose a variety of themes and styles of expression. The romantic poets wrote narrative poems, lyrics, sonnets, odes, ballads, and generally used blank verse. The spirit of the Romantic Revival lasted until the arrival of the Victorian poets who combined the lyricism of the Romantics with the sense of order and restraint of the classicists.

Fundamental Rights

Articles 12 and 35 of the Indian Constitution deal with Fundamental rights. The concept of Fundamental rights comes from the United States Constitution, but the Fundamental rights in our Constitution are more elaborate than in the United States. Fundamental rights are guaranteed by the Constitution to all citizens of the country without discrimination. The first request for Fundamental rights came in the form of the Swaraj Act in 1895. Fundamental rights were incorporated into the Constitution of India because they were considered necessary for the development of each individual’s personality and personality and the maintenance of human dignity. These Fundamental rights not only helps to protect human rights and dignity, but also prevent human rights abuses. In the case of infringement of Fundamental rights, the Supreme Court may issue writs such as Habeas Corpus, Mandamus, Prohibition,Certiorari, and Quo warranty. The purpose of Fundamental rights is to promote the ideals of political democracy. The Constitution of India stipulates the following seven Fundamental rights-

  • 1.Right to equality
  • 2. Right to freedom
  • 3. Right against exploitation
  • 4.Right to Freedom of Religion
  • 5. Cultural and educational rights
  • 6.Right to Property
  • 7. Right to Constitutional Remedies
  • However, Right to property were removed by the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1978 and removed from the list of Fundamental rights. Currently, it is a statutory right under Section 300A. Therefore, there are currently six Fundamental rights.

1. Right of Equality -Articles 14-18 deal with the right of equality. Article 14 clarifies that the state must not deny equality before the law, and Article 15 does not discriminates citizens based on religion, caste, race, gender, or place of birth.Article 16 provides for equality of opportunity for all citizens. Article 17 abolishes “untouchable” and Article 18 abolishes the title.

2. Right of Freedom -Articles 19-22 deal with the right to freedom. Article 19 grants all citizens the right to freedom of expression, the right to establish an association and the right to practice any profession. Article 20 protects the accused from arbitrary and excessive punishment. Article 21 makes it clear that no one shall be deprived of his or her life or personal liberty except in accordance with the procedures stipulated by law. Article 21A states that the state should provide free compulsory education for all children aged 6 to 14, and Article 22 provides protection from arrest and detention.

3. Right against Exploitation- Articles 23 and 24 deal with the right against exploitation. Article 23 prohibits trafficking and forced labor, and Article 24 prohibits the employment of children under the age of 14 in factories, mines, construction works, etc.

4. Right to Freedom of Religion -Articles 25-28 deals with the right to freedom of religion. Article 25 recognizes freedom of conscience, free occupation and dissemination of religion, Article 26 recognizes freedom to manage religious issues, Article 27 recognizes freedom of taxation on the promotion of religion, and Article 28 grants freedom from attending Religious Instruction.

5. Cultural and educational rights- Articles 29-30 deal with cultural and educational rights. Article 29 protects the interests of minorities and Article 30 gives minorities the right to establish and operate educational institutions.

6.Right to Constitutional Remedies- Article 32 deals with this provision. Dr BR Ambedkar called this right the “heart and soul” of the Indian Constitution. It gives the right to protect the fundamental right and is itself a fundamental right. Under this article, the Supreme Court has the authority to issue Writs.

The Romantic Revival

The first thirty years of the 19th century is termed as the period of the Romantic Revival in English literature. The Elizabethans were the first romantics. The romantic spirit suffered a decline during the subsequent ages and it was left to the writers, especially the poets of the early 19th century, to bring back that spirit once again to literature. The Romantic Revival is a broad term used to indicate the change that came over literary sensibility and expression during this period.

Romantic Revival in English Literature

The Romantic Revival was a revolt against the neo-classical spirit. The classical mode had outlived its utility and a change was universally felt. The signs of revolt became evident when James Thompson published his ‘The Season’, a poem new in matter and manner. Collins and Gray enlarged the spirit of the movement in their odes and elegies. Burns, Crabbe, and Cowper also contributed to the incipient revolt against the neo-classical traditions. Among the early romantics, William Blake was the most revolutionary and his two publications ‘Songs of Innocence’ (1789) and ‘Songs of Experiences’ (1794) were landmarks in the evolution of the romantic spirit in English poetry. These poets are called ‘the transition poets’ because they represented a period just before the great romantics.

Impact on French Revolution

The ideas of the French Revolution such as liberty, equality, and fraternity encouraged the growth of the romantic spirit. The literature and arts of ancient Greece and Rome and the writings of philosophers like Rousseau also had an impact on the Romantic Revival. Victor Hugo defined romanticism as liberalism in literature. The romantic outlook emphasised spontaneity of expression and encouraged man’s right to utter his thoughts without restrictions.

Romanticism in poetry

Romanticism is the expression of sharpened sensibilities and heightened imaginative feeling. It found solace in going back to the ancients both in mythology and history. It was also a return to nature. Romanticism was not only concerned with beauty and inner life but also added strangeness to beauty. Other aspects of romanticism are a subtle sense of mystery, an exuberant intellectual curiosity, and an instinct for the elemental simplicities of life. Thus the Romantic Revival brought back many of the characteristics of the Renaissance and the Reformation. The dignity and importance of man were recognised and the emotions and feelings of even the humblest human being were recognised as worthy of artistic and literary expression. The spirit of the Romantic Revival was best expressed in the poetry of the great romantics Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, and Byron and the novels of Walter Scott. Even the prose writings of Charles Lamb were colored by romantic sentiments.

The Lyrical Ballads published by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798 inaugurated the romantic era. It is called the period of Romantic Revival because the glorious productions of the nineteenth century had a close kinship with those of the spacious age of Elizabeth. Unbridled imagination, the first joy of a newfound power-the inevitable consequence of the Renaissance and Reformation characterised the Elizabethan and Caroline literature in the seventeenth century. But this spirit of imaginative enthusiasm was subjected to deep scrutiny and close criticism by the growing self-consciousness of the nation in the next age-the age of Pope and Johnson. During the eighteenth century, in society, in politics, in life and literature which is but a reflection of life, it stood for order, dignity, clarity, and for a certain standard of grace and beauty of ‘correctness’ and decorum in expression, and for the smothering of all passions and emotions which came to be regarded as barbaric and genteel. Against this spirit, the natural reaction was the second Romantic movement which was founded by William Blake and strengthened by William Wordsworth.

Victor Hugo describes romanticism as ‘liberalism in literature’. Wordsworth in his preface to the Lyrical Ballads boldly asserts “Those who have been accustomed to the gaudiness and inane phraseology of modern writers, if they persist in reading this book to its conclusion will no doubt, frequently have to struggle with feelings of strangeness and awkwardness.”

FEATURES OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

As you know, our Constitution is borrowed from the Constitutions of almost every country, but the Constitution of India has some characteristics that are different from those of other countries.

The Indian Constitution has the following characteristics.

1) Quoted from various sources- Our Constitution is borrowed from the Constitutions of various countries and the 1935 Indian Governance Act. The principles of the basic rights and guidelines of national politics come from the Constitution of the United States or Ireland, and the structural part of the Constitution of India comes from the Constitution of India in 1935. Thus, other parts of the Constitution are derived from the Constitution of the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Russia, Australia, France and so on.

2) The Longest Constitution- The Constitution of India is the Constitution of the World and is a very long and painstaking detail document as it contains the preamble, 490 articles and 12 appendices (now).

3) Parliamentary Government- The parliamentary system is based on the relationship between the executive branch and the legislature. Also known as the West Minister Government Model. In a parliamentary government, the head of government is the prime minister. As we know, the Indian parliamentary system is based on the British parliamentary system, but there are still some differences between the two. For example, India’s parliamentary system is not a sovereign body like the British Parliament.

4) Mixing stiffness and flexibility -,The Indian Constitution is neither rigid nor flexible, but a combination of both.

5) Unified Biased Federal System- The Constitution of India has all the usual functions of the Federation, including two governments, separation of powers, the Constitution, constitutional superiority, an independent judicial system, and a two-chamber system. Therefore, it has a federal government system.

6. Integrated and Independent Judiciary -The Constitution of India has an independent and integrated judiciary. The Supreme Court of India is at the forefront of the country’s integrated judicial system.

LIVE-IN RELATIONSHIP

Live-in relationship is a type of arrangement between couples where they decide to support each other emotionally and physically by living under one roof but without marriage. Live-in relationship is regarded as a mockery in the institution of marriage. People who are scared of marriage tend to opt for this option of live-in relationship.

ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN LIVE-IN RELATIONSHIP

India is yet to adopt live-in relationship to the fullest. The concept of live-in relationship is still not accepted by most of the people specially by the elderly ones. The society puts up questions upon the character of the lady and thus ladies suffer the most. There are many questions which are still left unanswered which goes on like- what will happen to the other partner if one leaves making the other one homeless? What will be the status of the child born out of live-in relationship?

LAW AND LIVE-IN RELATIONSHIP

Supreme Court has made the validity of the couples living in live-in relationships a little better and has also explained that live-in is not an offence. Living together may be right to live as per Article 21 which states Right to life and personal liberty.

The word spouse under CRPC has been revised to include a lady living with a man like his wife in a live-in relationship would also be entitled to alimony.

In the case of Tulsi & Ors v. Durghatiya & Ors, the Supreme Court held that a man and a woman involved in a live-in relationship for a longer priod of time will be considered as married and their child would be legitimate.

In the case of Khusboo v. Kanniamal and anr, the Supreme Court held that there is no law disallowing premarital sex or live-in.

Widow Remarriage Act of 185

The Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 which states ” All rights and interests which any widow may have in her deceased husband’s property shall upon her remarriage cease” has been repealed. Under the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act of 1956, widows who choose to marry another man after the death of her husband do have a right on their deceased husband’s property. The Act put the widow in the place of her deceased husband, and the husband’s share and rights in the property vested into the hands of the widow upon the death of her husband. This Act widened the scope of rights of the Hindu widow but it also limited the widow to hold the husband’s property only during her life time after which the property will be reverted back to her husband’s heirs.

RIGHTS IN HER HUSBAND’S PROPERTY

A Hindu widow is at liberty to do whatever she wishes with the property of her deceased husband and is not accountable to anyone. The widow can carry on the business of his deceased husband and thus can purchase and resale all the immovable property which was purchased in the course of business by her.

ADOPTION OF A CHILD BY A WIDOW

According to Hindu Law the adoption by a Hindu widow done in accordance with the authority given to her by her deceased husband is considered valid and as adoption not to herself, but to her husband. By word or by writing a Hindu father can nominate a guardian for his children and can even exclude the mother from guardianship.

ALIENATION OF PROPERTY BY A WIDOW

There are certain conditions upon which the sale deed can be constructed by a Hindu widow of property held by her as heir of her husband. They are as stated under-

The husband did not leave sufficient property so as to meet the needs of the wife.

She had to borrow money to meet her necessities.

There were ancestral debts which were still unpaid.

The only way to pay off the debts were to sell a portion of the property.

PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM

Articles 74 and 75 of the Constitution of India deal centrally with the Parliamentary Government. Parliamentary government is also known as the Cabinet Office or Westminster Government model. The parliamentary system is a responsible form of government due to the relationship between the legislature and the executive branch, and the head of government is the prime minister. The basis of political power is the head of state, and the power of the head of state is completely nominal. In this form of government, the head of state is either a monarch or a president. The real power is actually in the executive branch and is exercised by the prime minister. The executive branch is headed by the prime minister, and the cabinet has voted no confidence. The administration is responsible for the parliament. The parliamentary system does not set deadlines for the cabinet and parliament.

Characteristics of the parliamentary system-

The parliamentary government has the following characteristics.

1) Party rule is the majority -In a parliamentary government, party rule is the majority. Sabha’s electoral government, and its party leaders, are appointed prime minister by the president.

2) Real Administrative Officer and Nominal Prime Minister -Since the real administrative officer is the Prime Minister and the nominal administrative officer is the President, the President is the Head of State and the Prime Minister is the Head of Government.

3) Prime Minister’s Leadership- In a parliamentary government, the Prime Minister plays a leading role. The prime minister is the head of government, the head of the Council of Ministers, and the leader of political parties.

4) Collective Accountability -The Council of Ministers is collectively accountable to Lok Sabha and Parliament. The Council of Ministers works as a team, swimming and sinking together. Lok Sabha can dismiss the Council of Ministers.

5) Secrecy-The Council of Ministers operates in accordance with the principles of procedural secrecy and, after taking office, takes a secret oath. A secret oath to the Council of Ministers is made by the President.