Honour among chiefs
THE WEEK India|April 02, 2023
The distrust between Rajiv Gandhi and Zail Singh started much before the former became prime minister, asserts a new book
R. PRASANNAN
Honour among chiefs

The Indian President: An Insider's Account of the Zail Singh Years

By K.C. Singh

Published by HarperCollins

Pages 275 Price ₹699

Rubber-stamp presidents have been many, copybook presidents a few, corrective presidents fewer, but activist presidents? Only one— Giani Zail Singh. He alone dared to even think of dismissing a prime minister who enjoyed the confidence of the house of people, but not the confidence of his president. And he alone had the ingenuity to keep a bill, that was sent to him for assent, in his pocket and do nothing. The incident gave rise to a new phrase in the lexicon of constitutional practice—‘pocket veto’.

This story is from the April 02, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.

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This story is from the April 02, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.

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