India, Aug. 2 -- Our democracy has flaws. But which democracy is flawless? What is happening in the United States today?

Some days back a prominent Congress MP of the Lok Sabha, in a newspaper article propounded the stale theory that India should abandon Parliamentary democracy, and adopt the Presidential system. This absurd suggestion was hawked by B.K. Nehru and L.K. Jha about 40 years ago, both ICS, and one or two other lightweights. Sarva Shri Braj Kumar Nehru and Lakshmikant Jha were competent civil servants, pillars of the Raj, indifferent to the freedom movement.

Their hair-brained idea was promptly dismissed by Indira Gandhi on the advice of her Principal Secretary, P.N. Haksar.

I have been a member of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sab...