Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R). Assertion (A) : India has a Parliamentary system of Government. Reason (R) : In India, the executive is responsible to the legislature. Select the correct answer from the code given below :
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- (b)(A) is true, but (R) is false
- (c)(A) is false, but (R) is true
- (d)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
Correct — D, Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). Assertion (A) is true: India adopted the Westminster or 'responsible government' model rather than the American presidential one, and the Constitution builds it twice over — Articles 74 and 75 for the Union, Articles 163 and 164 for every State. Reason (R) is true as a matter of constitutional text: Article 75(3) says the Council of Ministers 'shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People', and Article 164(2) makes a State Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly. And (R) is the correct explanation of (A), because the responsibility of the executive to the legislature is not one feature of the parliamentary system among many — it is the criterion that defines it. A government that must retain the confidence of the elected House, and that falls the moment it loses a no-confidence vote, is by definition parliamentary; a government with a fixed term that the legislature cannot vote out is presidential. The Reason therefore states precisely why the Assertion is true, which is code (d).
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A) — Half right, and the half it gets wrong is the one being tested. Both statements are indeed true, but this option then severs the link between them. Reserve code (a) for a Reason that is true yet unrelated — say, 'India has a Parliamentary system because Parliament is bicameral'. Here the Reason is the textbook definition of the Assertion, so it does explain it.
- (b)(A) is true, but (R) is false — (R) is not false. Collective responsibility of the Council of Ministers to the Lok Sabha is written into Article 75(3), and Article 164(2) repeats it for the States. The one refinement worth carrying is that the responsibility runs to the Lok Sabha alone and not to the Rajya Sabha — but the statement here says only 'the legislature', which is correct as far as it goes.
- (c)(A) is false, but (R) is true — India is unambiguously parliamentary at both the Union and the State levels. The Constituent Assembly examined the American presidential alternative and rejected it; Dr B. R. Ambedkar defended the choice on the ground that the British model gives more responsibility, even if the American gives more stability. Nothing in Indian practice — a Prime Minister drawn from the majority in the Lok Sabha, ministers sitting in the House, governments falling on confidence votes — supports calling (A) false.
A parliamentary system fuses the executive and the legislature instead of separating them. The real executive — the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers — is drawn from the legislature, sits in it and stays in office only so long as the elected House supports it; beside it stands a nominal executive, the President (Articles 52 and 53), who acts on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers under Article 74(1). A presidential system does the opposite: the executive is separately elected, serves a fixed term and cannot be turned out by an ordinary legislative vote. Every other familiar feature of the Indian system — ministers who must be members of Parliament, cabinet secrecy, a dissolvable lower House — hangs off that one principle of responsibility.
Assertion-Reason items are decided in two steps: test each statement on its own, then ask whether the Reason is the reason. Both statements clear step one easily here, so everything turns on step two, and the temptation is to mark (a) on a vague feeling that 'there must be more to a parliamentary system than that'. There is more, but each of those extras follows from, or serves, the single principle that the government answers to the House. The working rule: when the Reason states the standard definition of the thing asserted, the answer is the 'correct explanation' code — here (d).
- Article 75(3): the Union Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of the People (Lok Sabha) — not to Parliament as a whole and not to the Rajya Sabha
- Article 164(2) applies the identical rule in the States: the State Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly
- Article 74(1): the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister aids and advises the President, who shall act in accordance with that advice — the 42nd Amendment made the advice binding and the 44th gave the President one power of reconsideration
- Article 75(5): a Minister who is not a member of either House of Parliament for six consecutive months ceases to be a Minister — the rule that keeps the executive seated inside the legislature
- In a presidential system the executive has a fixed tenure and cannot be voted out by the legislature; that contrast is exactly what makes 'the executive is responsible to the legislature' the defining reason rather than an incidental feature
- Marking (a) — 'both true but not the explanation' — out of caution; in Assertion-Reason items on a definitional feature, the Reason usually is the explanation
- Believing the Council of Ministers is responsible to both Houses: Article 75(3) names only the Lok Sabha, and both UPSC (2007) and UPPSC (2021) have built whole questions on that trap
- Confusing collective responsibility under Article 75(3) with individual responsibility under Article 75(2), where a Minister holds office during the pleasure of the President
UPPSC keeps this in the Assertion-Reason wrapper and rewards the candidate who can say which feature defines the parliamentary system. UPSC asks it head-on — 'There is a Parliamentary System of Government in India because…' (2015) and 'A Parliamentary System of Government is one in which…' (2020) — or tests the fine print of Article 75(3).
There is a Parliamentary System of Government in India because the
- (a) Lok Sabha is elected directly by the people
- (b) Parliament can amend the Constitution
- (c) Rajya Sabha cannot be dissolved
- (d) Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha
Answer(d) Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha
The same proposition asked directly rather than as an Assertion-Reason pair. UPSC's key marks 'Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha' as the reason India has a parliamentary system — which is exactly what makes (R) the correct explanation of (A) here.
A Parliamentary System of Government is one in which
- (a) all political parties in the Parliament are represented in the Government
- (b) the Government is responsible to the Parliament and can be removed by it
- (c) the Government is elected by the people and can be removed by them
- (d) the Government is chosen by the Parliament but cannot be removed by it before completion of a fixed term
Answer(b) the Government is responsible to the Parliament and can be removed by it
The definitional half of the same idea: a parliamentary system is one in which the government is responsible to, and removable by, the legislature. Read together with the 2015 question, it shows why responsibility is treated as the defining criterion and not as one feature among several.
Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and other as Reason (R): Assertion (A): The Council of Ministers in India is collectively responsible to both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Reason (R): Members of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are eligible to become Ministers in Union Government. Select the correct answer using the codes given below. Codes:
- (a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is correct explanation of (A)
- (b) Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not correct explanation of (A)
- (c) (A) is true, but (R) is false
- (d) (A) is false, but (R) is true
Answer(d) (A) is false, but (R) is true
UPPSC's own Assertion-Reason on the same Article, running the trap in the opposite direction: there the Assertion is false because Article 75(3) makes the Council of Ministers responsible to the Lok Sabha alone, not to both Houses. Hold both cards together and you have the whole of Article 75(3) — responsible, but only to the House of the People.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The principle of collective responsibility of the Council of Ministers to the House of the People is laid down in which Article of the Constitution of India?
- (a)Article 74(1)
- (b)Article 75(3)
- (c)Article 78
- (d)Article 164(2)
Answer(b) Article 75(3) — Article 164(2) carries the same rule for the States, Article 74(1) deals with aid and advice to the President, and Article 78 with the Prime Minister's duty to keep the President informed.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is NOT a feature of the parliamentary form of government?
- (a)Collective responsibility of the executive to the legislature
- (b)A fixed tenure for the executive irrespective of the confidence of the legislature
- (c)Membership of the executive in the legislature
- (d)Existence of a nominal head of State alongside a real executive
Answer(b) A fixed tenure for the executive irrespective of the confidence of the legislature — that is the hallmark of the presidential system; the other three are all parliamentary features.