Jaipur: Former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today said Parliamentary system was "ill-suited" to Indian national character but the country was "stuck" with it as it was conditioned to look at the British as "embodiment of everything".
He said it was difficult for Parliamentary system to work in a country as populous and as diverse as India.
"One of the reasons we are stuck with this parliamentary system that is so ill-suited to Indian national character is because it was the system that the British ran and we were very well conditioned to look at the British as an embodiment of everything," he said.
The former minister recalled reading about how Indian nationalist leaders had reacted with horror when Clement Attlee, a member of the Simon Commission, had suggested that the country would be better off under a presidential system.
The Congress Lok Sabha lawmaker from Thiruvananthapuram said India should not necessarily be grateful to the British for institutions the country inherited.
"We then latched this on to our country with such diversity and extraordinary ranges of caste, creed, colour, culture, cuisine, conviction, costume and custom and expected it to work despite challenges of coalition government and we have done this in such a way that each MP is representing 2 million people. It is physically impossible to be in touch with all those you are representing."
"One cannot possibly put a value, especially not a monetary value, on the colossal damage inflicted by Britain on India over 200 years," he said.
He said it was difficult for Parliamentary system to work in a country as populous and as diverse as India.
"One of the reasons we are stuck with this parliamentary system that is so ill-suited to Indian national character is because it was the system that the British ran and we were very well conditioned to look at the British as an embodiment of everything," he said.
The former minister recalled reading about how Indian nationalist leaders had reacted with horror when Clement Attlee, a member of the Simon Commission, had suggested that the country would be better off under a presidential system.
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The Congress Lok Sabha lawmaker from Thiruvananthapuram said India should not necessarily be grateful to the British for institutions the country inherited.
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"We then latched this on to our country with such diversity and extraordinary ranges of caste, creed, colour, culture, cuisine, conviction, costume and custom and expected it to work despite challenges of coalition government and we have done this in such a way that each MP is representing 2 million people. It is physically impossible to be in touch with all those you are representing."
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"One cannot possibly put a value, especially not a monetary value, on the colossal damage inflicted by Britain on India over 200 years," he said.
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