Difference Between United States President and Indian President

May 7, 2016 May 7, 2016

How the office of the US President is different from that of the Indian President?

Manner of election

US president is more or less directly elected whereas the Indian president is indirectly elected. The advantage of the directly elected head of the government is the stability of the government. Unlike Indian Prime Minister American President is not overpowered by the “compulsions of coalition politics”

Head of the State

The US President is both the Head of the State and Head of the Government, whereas the Indian president is only the head of the State. President of the US is the real executive. Indian President like the British monarch is only a titular head.

Term of office

American President holds the office for 4 years and he can seek re-election only once, while the Indian president holds the office for 5 years and is eligible for re-election any number of times.

Responsibility to Legislature

The US president is not part of any legislature and is not responsible to the legislatures. In India, the Parliament includes the President and the two houses- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Removal process

Both the American and Indian Presidents can only be removed from the office through impeachment. In India either house can initiate impeachment proceedings against the president and with the concurrence of the other house can impeach the President. In US the power to impeach solely lies with the Senate (upper house).

Emergency powers

Indian President wields huge powers during emergency situations. He can proclaim both external and internal emergencies. Indian President can declare emergency in a state, dissolve state legislature and dismiss the state council of ministers. During financial emergency, he has the power to reduce the salaries of all the government officials including that of the Supreme Court and High Court judges. He has a formidable list of executive, financial and legislative powers which he can exercise on the advice of the cabinet during emergency.

Independence of office

The Indian President needs to act as per the advice of the Council of Ministers (CoM) while discharging his duties. The CoM takes all the decisions pertaining to the affairs of the country and executes them under the President’s name.

In the US, the members of the cabinet are not members of the Congress and are not responsible to it. The cabinet members are appointed by the President and they are liable to be dismissed by the President. The American President has the power to determine the policy of his government independently without any external interference.

Veto power

Indian President has comparatively lesser veto power than the President of US. The President of US can veto a bill passed by the Congress. He needs to sign the bill if it is once again passed by two-thirds majority of both the houses.

The Indian President on the other hand can send the bill for reconsideration only once. If the bill is passed again even by a simple majority in the Parliament he is obliged to sign the bill.

Pocket veto

US President can exercise his pocket veto power by not signing the bill for 10 days if he knows the session of the congress will end within 10 days. In such cases the bill dies.

Indian President can keep the bill for indefinite period as there is no constitutionally prescribed time limit to give his assent. The President can use his pocket veto if the fall of the government appears imminent. However, he has to act as per the advice of the new government and cannot take his own decision if the current government falls. Pocket veto was first exercised by the President Giani Zail Singh with respect to the Indian Postal Bill which was passed by the Rajiv Gandhi government. Subsequently, the new government withdrew the bill in 1989.

State bills

Certain state bills need the previous consent of the president and he possess absolute veto power with respect to some types of state bills. The US President does not have such powers.