Sir, my honourable Friend Prof. K. T. Shah, has raised a very important issue, viz., to introduce the system now in vogue in the United States of America. Sir, today in democratic countries, two different systems are working, one is the system now in vogue in the U.S.A. and the other is the Cabinet system of responsible government. We appointed a Committee, the Union Committee. This Committee, after due deliberation, weighing the pros and cons, all the advantages and difficulties of the working of the constitutions in various countries, have devised a system of responsibilities which is known as the system of Cabinet responsibility. Sir, the report of that Committee was adopted by the honourable Members of this House. It was up to Prof. Shah to have moved and taken a decision on this issue at that time. The Drafting Committee have only given shape to the decisions of the honourable Members of this House. It is, I am afraid, too late in the day to change the structure of our Constitution. A change in the system naturally means a change in a great many articles of this Constitution. Practically it disturbs the very basis of this Constitution. I would therefore appeal to my honourable Friend not to press his amendment. Sir, in justification of his plea, he has appealed to us to think of a President who would be a non-party man. I would plead with him that he has undertaken an impossible task. Sir, party system is the very basis of democracy. How on earth could you find a President who is anon-party man? Even the President of the United States is not a non-party man. Those who have seriously followed the working of the American Constitution and especially the last Presidential election must have come to the conclusion that it is the party system that is functioning in America. If Professor Shah thinks of a non-party President, he will have to think of something other than democracy. Sir, Turkey had a sort of non-party government but it has given it up in preference to a party system of government and elections have been introduced. You have to think of a totalitarian state if you think of a non-party President. It is impossible in the very nature of things. Therefore his plea that the President is and ought to be a non-party man does not at all appeal to me
