India+Politics

Politics of India On January 26, 1950, India declared itself as Republic. On this day the Constitution of India came into force. Today, India is a federation of 28 states and 7 union territories and formally, this federation is known as a Union.
 * History || Geography || Culture || Economics || Politics || Class Activities || Resources ||

India is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic with a Parliamentary system of government, meaning it is a democratic republic where power is shared between the central and state government, but the central government is given greater power.

Central Government: __Executive Branch __ Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh President: Pratibha Devisingh Patil (first woman to hold office) Vice President: Shri M. Hamid Ansari

__Legislative Branch __ Parliament of India
 * Rajya Sabha (Council of States)
 * Lok Sabha (House of the People)

State Government:
 * Each state has a governor (appointed by the President)
 * They are responsible to the legislatures

__Judicial Branch __ <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Resolves disputes related to the people and the government
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Supreme Court
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">High Court
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Lower courts

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**<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">This is the current prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh. ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">Manmohan Singh is the current and 13th Prime Minister of India. A member of the Indian National Congress, he took oath as Prime Minister on May 22, 2004. Despite never having been elected to the Lok Sabha, he has enjoyed popular support, and is seen as a clean politician untouched by the taint of corruption.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">Some of his achievements include the passing of the important National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right to Information Act by Parliament in 2005. He was also instrumental in the signing of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal in 2008. Manmohan Singh is married to Gursharan Kaur and has three daughters. [] <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">This is the current President of India, Pratibha Patil <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">On July 25, 2007, she became the first female President of India. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">This is the current Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 25px;">Political Parties <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">The Indian political parties are categorized into two main types. National level parties and state level parties. National parties are political parties which, participate in different elections all over India. A few examples are: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Indian National Congress <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Bhartiya Janata Party  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Bahujan Samaj Party  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Samajwadi Party  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Communist Party of India  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Communist Party of India (Marxist) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">State parties or regional parties are political parties which, participate in different elections but only within one state. A few examples are: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Shiv Sena participates only in Maharashtra <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Telegu Desam in Andra Pradesh  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Akali Dal in Punjab  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) in Tamil Nadu <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;"> There are also some small communist parties who participate only within one state. Some states have more than one party. [] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: left;">©Rachelle Dawson 2012. Last revised: May 8, 2012. All Rights Reserved. For more information, please contact: Rachelle Dawson rdawson@gmail.com