The Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, said on Sunday that the heads of executive, legislature or judiciary cannot be complacent and act in confrontation but must act in collaboration.

The Vice President was addressing a gathering after releasing the book ‘Governorpet to Governor’s House: A Hick’s Odyssey’, a memoir of former Tamil Nadu Governor, P.S. Ramamohan Rao, here.

“There is no room for confrontation or being a complainant by those who head these institutions. Those who are heading executive, legislature or judiciary, they cannot be complacent, they cannot act in confrontation. They have to act in collaboration and find resolution together,” Dhankhar said.

He said that there is a need for a structured mechanism among those at the helm of these institutions – the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. And such structured mechanism of interaction will go a long way. Those who head these institutions cannot use their platforms for a dialogue with the other institution, he said.

“I have no doubt… and I have been saying this for a long time… the country’s great democracy blossoms and flourishes, it is the primacy of our Constitution that determines the stability, harmony and productivity of democratic governance,” he said.

The Vice President added that the Parliament is reflecting that the mandate of the people is “the ultimate and exclusive architect of the Constitution. A Constitution has to evolve from the people through the Parliament”.

Dhankhar said the executive has no role in evolving the Constitution and no other institution, including the judiciary, has any role to evolve the Constitution. Constitution evolution has to take place in the Parliament and there can be no super body to look into that, he said.

He also stressed that democratic values and public interests are optimally served when the legislature, the judiciary and the executive discharge their respective obligations scrupulously, confining to their domain and acting in harmony, togetherness and tandem.

“This is quintessential, and any transgression of this will create a problem for democracy. It is not being possessive about power. It is being possessive about the powers given to us by the Constitution. And that is a challenge we all have to collectively face and harmoniously discharge,” the Vice President said.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed.)