PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 

• In the United Kingdom, the tradition of the monarch addressing the Parliament began in the 16th century.
• In the United States, President Gorge Washington addressed Congress for the first time in 1790.
• In India, the practice of the President addressing Parliament was established after the promulgation of the Government of India Act in 1919.
• This law gave the Governor-General the right of addressing the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State.
• The law did not have a provision for a joint address but the Governor-General did address the Assembly and the Council together on multiple occasions.

2.1. In Independent India

• Between 1947 and 1950, there was no address to the Constituent Assembly (Legislative).
• After the Constitution came into force, President Rajendra Prasad addressed members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for the first time on January 31, 1950.
• The Constitution gives the President and the Governor the power to address a sitting of the legislature.

• A session of a new or continuing legislature can not begin without fulfilling this requirement.
• When the Constitution came into force, the President was required to address each session of Parliament.
• So during the provisional Parliament in 1950, President Prasad gave an address before every session.
• In 1951, the First Amendment to the Constitution changed this and made the President's address an annual affair.

3. The government's role

• There is no set format for the President's or Governor's speech.
• The Constitution states that the President shall "inform Parliament of the cause of the summons".
• During the making of the Constitution, Prof K T Shah wanted the President's address to be more specific.
• He suggested that the language be changed to specify that the President shall inform Parliament "on other particular issues of policy he deems suitable for such address".

• The address of the President follows a general structure in which it highlights the government's accomplishments from the previous year and sets the broad governance agenda for the coming year.
• The President's speech is essentially the viewpoint of the government and is also written by it.
• Usually, in December, the Prime Minister's office asks the various ministries to start sending in their inputs for the speech.
• The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs sends a message, asking ministries to give information about any legislative proposals that need to be included in the President's address.
• All this information is collated and shaped into a speech, which is then delivered to the President.
• The President's address serves as a platform for the government to make policy and legislative announcements.

4. What if President disagrees with the text of the speech

• The President or Governor cannot refuse to perform the constitutional duty of delivering an address to the legislature.
• But there can be situations when they deviate from the text of the speech prepared by the government.
• So far, there have been no instances of a President doing so.
• But there have been occasions when a Governor skipped or changed a portion of the address to the Assembly.
• Most recently, Tamil Nadu's Governor R N Ravi made changes to the prepared speech he read out in the Assembly.
• According to Chief Minister MK Stalin had to step in and move a resolution, which demanded that only the original speech given to the Governor be put in records.
• In 2020, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, during his address to the Assembly stopped before reading out his speech's paragraph 18, which related to the Kerala government's opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
• Before this, in 1969, West Bengal's Governor Dharma Vira skipped two paragraphs of the speech written by the United Front government, which was at the time led by Chief Minister Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee with Jyoti Basu as the Deputy CM.
• The skipped portions were related to the dismissal of the first United Front government by the Congress-ruled central government.

5. The Procedure and traditions

• After the President's address, the two Houses move a motion to thank the President for her speech.
• This is an occasion for MPs in the two Houses to have a broad debate on governance in the country.
• The issues raised by MPs are then addressed by the Prime Minister, who also replies to the motion of thanks.
• The motion is then put to vote and MPs can express their disagreement by moving amendments to the motion.

• The President's address is seen as one of the most solemn occasions in the Parliamentary calendar.
•  It is the only time in the year when the whole Parliament comes together.
• The address is an event, associated with ceremony and protocol and the Lok Sabha Secretariat makes extensive arrangements for it.
• Earlier, it used to get 150 yards of red baize cloth from the President's house for the ceremonial procession.
• An officer of Lok Sabha would also be instructed to remind the ADC to the President to bring the water and tumbler from Rashtrapati Bhawan for the President's use.
• The President arrives at Parliament House escorted by the Presidental Guards and is received by the Presiding officers of the two Houses, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and the Secretaries-General of the two Houses.
• He is then escorted to the Central Hall where he delivers his address to the assembled MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

For Prelims & Mains