Talk:Gulzarilal Nanda

Acting Prime Minister/Interim Prime Minister vs acting Prime Minister/interim Prime Minister

The fact that most sources list Gulzarilal Nanda as an Acting or an Interim Prime Minister (which are in fact two entirely different things, but more on that later) seems to have no constitutional basis whatsoever in India. Namely, the Constitution of India does not foresee any office titled Interim PM or Acting PM (neither with the capital first letters A or I, or otherwise). Indeed, when the PM dies or refuses to stay on after resigning, the office falls vacant, i.e. there is no PM (Acting, Interim or official). So when Indira Gandhi was killed, there was no automatic Acting or Interim PM. Instead, the office was vacant until her son Rajiv was installed soon after. The reason why Nanda is often (falsely) styled as only an Acting/Interim PM is because his term was never meant to last long, i.e. it was known right away that he would not be chosen by Congress to serve the remainder of the parliamentary term until the next election. Indeed, he was sworn in in the same manner as all other PMs (both times), and took the same oath that they did before the President of India. Furthermore, the official website of the PM clearly lists him as Prime Minister, meaning that his brief 13 day cabinets were formed in their own right (despite consisting of the same ministers as Nehru's and Shastri's), i.e. the cabinet that continued in place after Nehru's death was not just the Nehru cabinet headed by a temporary PM, but a First Nanda Ministry in its own right, sworn in anew before the President.

Now, as for the terms Acting/Interim and acting/interim. The first legal distinction is between an Acting and an Interim office holder (capitalized).

An Acting PM, Acting President, etc., is commonly used only for those officials who hold the POWERS AND DUTIES of the office, WHILE THE INCUMBENT IS STILL SERVING. So, if the PM were to fall sick or have to travel abroad, he or she would pass on his or her powers to a cabinet minister who would be styled Acting PM, but there would still be a PM as well, just without powers. This was, for example, the case when Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand was on maternity leave and Winston Peters was named Acting PM (but Ardern was still legally the PM, and could resume the full extent of her powers and duties at any time).

An Interim President, Interim PM, etc., is a constitutionally-appointed official who takes the POWERS AND DUTIES of an office, AFTER THE INCUMBENT HAD LEFT OFFICE, but BEFORE A PERMANENT SUCCESSOR IS ELECTED/APPOINTED. The key word here is constitutionally-appointed. Namely, if the constitution states that, for example, a vacancy in the presidency or the premiership should automatically (but temporarlily) be filled by the person who is the designated successor (a Vice President, Deputy President, Speaker of Parliament, Deputy PM, etc.), but only for a period until a permanent successor is chosen (usually in an early election, i.e. the Interim official does not hold office for long, but just until a transition takes places to a permanent government), then this official is constitutionally styled the Interim office holder. This type of temporary succession, as already said, is CONSTITUTIONALLY not foreseen (or allowed) to last longer than a certain period (e.g. 90 days or 6 months etc.), and the Interim office holder usually does not possess all the powers of a permanent office holder. This WAS NOT the case with Nanda. Firstly, if Congress had allowed it, Nanda could have stayed on as PM indefinitely after being sworin in 1964 (though he would need to prove his majority with a confidence vote in the Lok Sabha). Secondly, Nanda did not automatically succeed Nehru as PM upon his death, but was rather proposed to the President by Congress, and was named to the position as per the Constitution. Thirdly, Nanda possessed all the constitutional powers that are given to the PM.

Finally, as to the meaning of acting and interim (lower case first letters). If someone is described as an acting Prime Minister or an interim Prime Minister, this is NOT a constitutional designation or a formal title in itself. Namely, this formulation is almost exclusively used by the media, and it is used to describe someone who has announced that though they have taken office as Prime Minister, they do not intend to hold it for very long. For example, after Nehru died it was widely known that Nanda had no chance of staying on long term, but the party needed a placeholder PM until they could agree on a new long term PM. This was also the case after Shastri died. Now, from a purely partisan Congress viewpoint, Nanda was just acting for someone who had not yet been chosen to replace Nehru. But from the perspective of the constitution there were only two options after Nehru's death: 1) leave the office of PM vacant until Congress can propose a new PM, or 2) install a new PM immediately, i.e. Congress should propose someone to fill the office. How long that new PM holds on to the office depended solely on the will of the ruling party (or coalition), i.e. it is no longer a matter of the constitution. So, if Congress had decided that Nanda should serve until the next election, he would have done so (in other words, his tenure was not limited in any way by the constitution, as the tenure of an Interim or an Acting President or PM would be). Northernelk777 (talk) 11:33, 28 April 2021 (UTC)