Tharoor favours presidential system of government in India

New Delhi, Dec 21  Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday favoured the presidential form of government in the country, adding but it should be "customised in a way that it preserves the rich diversity of the nation and also the democracy".

He said looking at the present system of polity and governance in the country it would be a good idea to start the debate of having a presidential form of government in the country.

"The parliamentary system has demonstrated some flaws and the time has come to look for an alternative. The alternative was always there on the table but now is the time to start discussing and debating it," he said at the launch of Bhanu Dhamija's book "Why India Needs The Presidential System" here.

He said nationalist leader like Jawaharlal Nehru had thought of this idea much before but the discussions got lost later in the chaos of the successive coalition governments.

"The fundamental flaws of the parliamentary form of government have become more apparent in the successive coalition governments in the past 25 years," he added.

Tharoor batted for creating a system wherein a "chief executive" of constituencies can be elected directly by people and "they should be held accountable for the 'governance business' after a given point of time".

The Congress leader said: "I am not saying that we should adopt the presidential system as it is in the US. We can work on it and make it even better and a one more practical for country like India."

He said the election of Narendra Modi as the prime minister "constantly reminds me of the need of the presidential form of government", adding "I had a belief in the parliamentary form of government till Modi was elected as the prime minister".