PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Organs of Government

Has the thrust of government tilted towards executive in contemporary Indian politics? Give your arguments.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 Parliamentary design: executive drawn from & accountable to Lok Sabha (Art 75) overlap natural tilt = overlap hardening into dominance

Route 2 Question of degree, not kind some executive strength is built-in locate where strength starts weakening Parliament / committees / opposition

Body flow

PM–PMO ascendancy (Ambedkar Indira’s Cabinet-to-PMO shift Modi-era PMO centrality) executive law-making bypass (Mehta on ordinances Krishna Kumar Singh 2017 Money Bill / Aadhaar route) Parliament’s decline (sitting days 120 58, 16% of Bills to committees Hewitt & Rai: weak committee scrutiny party whip Khaitan: accountability crisis Shah: elected autocracy)

Counter-view

Checks still bite: 2008 nuclear-deal confidence vote, coal-block cancellation, Money Bill review (Chandrachud, Bhushan) Abraham: responsible govt needs a functional Parliament

Conclusion routes

Route 1 Tilt is real, but separation of powers negotiated, not rigid; the parliamentary form = basic structure

Route 2 Executive strength aids governance; the danger is unchecked dominance, not strength itself

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2020, Organs of Government