Presidential System May Be Considered, Says Advani

The Constitution review commission proposed by the BJP-led government could consider far-reaching changes in the statute, including a switch over to presidential system, home minister L K Aadvani indicated yesterday.

Delivering a lecture on the need for a commission to review the constitution here, he said the questions including changes in electoral system and decentralisation of powers apart from the one relating to presidential system could beconsidered in depth by the commission.

These do cover a wide field, but essentially they are illustrative, not exhaustive. And as anyone can see even if the country agrees to make far-reaching changes touched by these questions, the basic structure of the Constitution will remain unaltered, the home minister said.

 

He described as utterly baseless and politically motivated allegations that the BJP-led government would scrap the Ambedkar constitution, throw secularism overboard and also scrap reservations.

He said the proposed commission would be required not to tinker with essential ingredients of the constitution, adding both secularism and reservation for scheduled castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes were such essential ingredients.