Premier of Rajyaghar

Premier of Rajyaghar
राजाघर का प्रधान मंत्री
Government Seal
Incumbent Madhava Thakur since September 2010
Central Union Government Premier's Office
Style	The Right Honourable His Excellency (diplomatic) Premier (informal)
Status	Head of Government
Member of	Shahee Sansad, Ashta Pradhan, National Security Council
Reports to	Monarch of Rajyaghar, Shahee Sansad
Residence	The State House
Seat	Government Hill, Kinadica
Nominator	Political Parties
Appointer	Monarch of Rajyaghar based on appointee's ability to command confidence in the Shahee Sansad
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure Shahee Sansad term is 5 years unless dissolved sooner
Constituting instrument	Constitution of Rajyaghar, Acts of Governance
Formation	October 1946
First holder	Baiju Pahir Kapadia
Unofficial names	Prime Minister, Peshwa

The Premier of Rajyaghar (Matrabashi: Rajyaghār ke Pradhānamantrī) officially the Premier of the Central Union Government of Rajyaghar is the leader of the Central Union Government; the executive branch of the Government of Rajyaghar. The Premier is the chief adviser to the Monarch of Rajyaghar and the head of the Ashta Pradhan (Cabinet). Whilst the Monarch may appoint any citizen to serve as Premier, by convention the Premier is appointed from amongst the sitting members of the largest political party in the lower house of the Shahee Sansad, the House of Representatives.

The Premier is the most senior member of the Ashta Pradhan and serves as its Chairman. As such, the Premier alone may nominate members of the Ashta Pradhan and can request the dismissal of Ministers to the Monarch. The Premier is also entrusted with advising the Monarch on the exercise of Royal Decrees. The Ashta Pradhan is collectively and individually responsible to the Shahee Sansad and the Premier must retain the confidence of a majority in the Shahee Sansad. Failure to secure a majority in the Shahee Sansad when instructed by the Monarch shall result in the immediate dismissal of a Premier.

The Office of Premier comes with certain privileges including a security detail, paid expenses and residency at the State House. Former Premiers are also afforded a security detail for life, access to State Guest Houses. Former Premiers are also entitled to sit and observe debates of the Shahee Sansad from within its chamber, however, they cannot vote.

The incumbent Premier is Madhava Thakur who has served as PM since September 2010. Thakur first led a coalition government between his Rajyani Rashtriya Party and the Liberal Party. Thakur and the RRP were returned to power as a majority government in 2015 and again in 2020.

Appointment, Tenure and Removal

Eligibility

In order for an individual to be appointed to the Office of Premier, they must fulfill the following criteria set out by the Constitution:

• Be a Citizen of the Kingdom of Rajyaghar,
• Have resided within the Kingdom of Rajyaghar for the last ten years,
• Be above the age of 25 years,
• Not be found guilty of a serious crime,

Appointment Process

The Constitution states that the Monarch may appoint any citizen to be Premier, provided they meet the qualifications listed above, but by convention the Monarch will appoint the leader of the largest party or political group in the House of Representatives. The Monarch may also dismiss Premiers at their discretion but this is reserved for emergency situations and this power has never been exercised.

Following a General Election, if a political party wins a majority of seats in the House, their leader is invited by the Monarch to form a new government. If the outcome of a general election is unclear (i.e. hung parliament) the Monarch will often wait for the political parties to form coalitions before selecting an individual to serve as Premier so as to avoid any inference of political bias.

When an individual is selected to be the next Premier, they are invited to the Royal Palace where the Monarch will invite them to form a Government. The new Premier will then nominate individuals to serve in the Ashta Pradhan, as Ministers of the Crown and to fill other government posts. In an inauguration ceremony held usually that day or the following day, the Premier is given a ceremonial swearing in ceremony and his cabinet nominees are officially sworn into office.

Tenure and Removal

The Premier of the Kingdom of Rajyaghar serves at 'His Majesty's pleasure' and may therefore remain in office indefinitely, so long as the Monarch retains their confidence in them. By convention, however, a Premier must have the confidence of a majority of the Shahee Sansad as for a government to function they must be able to pass legislation through the legislature.

At the beginning of each session of the Shahee Sansad, there is a speech from the throne where the Government prepares a speech outlining their agenda for the session, which the Monarch will read before the Shahee Sansad, this is called the 'Royal Address'. Following the Royal Address, the House of Representatives will hold a Vote of Confidence in the Government. If the government wins the vote, the Premier is assumed to have the support of the Shahee Sansad for the duration of that session unless they lose a vote of no confidence. If the government loses the vote, the Premier must resign and the House is given 2 weeks to appoint a new Premier or a new General Election is called.

Following a successful vote of no confidence, the House of Representatives is automatically tasked with nominating a new individual to the Monarch. This is done via a 'Premierial Ballot' in the House in which any member who wishes to serve as Premier puts their name forward and a series of votes via the optional preferential voting system is used until a single candidate has 50%+1 votes in favour of their nomination. However, there is an option for not voting for a candidate which can cause this process to fail. If the process fails and 2 weeks have expired since the vote of no confidence, the Monarch must dissolve the Shahee Sansad and call for a new General Election.

Continuity of Government

Before 2013, the death or incapacity of a Premier would have left serious gaps within the national security apparatus of the Kingdom. As a result, the Thakur Government passed the Continuity of Government Act (2013) which established a clear line of succession to the duties of the Premier should they die or be incapacitated. In Rajyaghar, there is no such thing as an "acting" Premier as the Constitution does not allow for anyone or anything, including laws, to appoint the Premier except for the Monarch. As the national security apparatus is not established in the Constitution but rather via various Acts of the Shahee Sansad, the duties afforded to the Premier via these acts can be transferred to an individual in the case of incapacity or death and this is what is done through the Continuity of Government Act (2013). Additional duties are also transferred as the Constitution does not bar this from occurring. The term for this process is named after the act itself; Continuity of Government.

If Continuity of Government is invoked, the order of succession for acquiring the additional duties is as follows:

1. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
2. Secretary of State for Defence
3. Secretary of State for Home Affairs
4. Secretary of State for the Treasury
5. The Monarch of Rajyaghar

The Continuity of Government Act (2013) allows for three scenarios:

1. Death of the Premier (Article 1) - If a Premier dies in office, Article 1 of the Continuity of Government Act (2013) is automatically. Since 1978, all national political parties have frameworks in place to allow for the immediate nomination of a new party leader to the Monarch which allows for a new Premier to be appointed within a matter of hours.
2. Voluntary incapacity of the Premier (Article 2) - If a Premier must recuse themself from conducting the business of government, they may invoked Article 2 themself. This requires a signed, written declaration stating that they are temporarily recusing themselves from the duties safeguarded under the Continuity of Government Act (2013). When the Premier wishes to return from their recusal, they must sign another written declaration stating that they wish to resume their duties. This second letter must be presented to the Monarch after which the Premier automatically resumes their duties safeguarded under the Continuity of Government Act (2013). During their recusal, the individual remains Premier as not all duties can be transferred.
3. Involuntary incapacity of the Premier (Article 3) - In the event of involuntary incapacity, a majority of the Ashta Pradhan must sign a Letter of Recommendation to the Monarch stating that Continuity of Government should be invoked. Historians have widely speculated that if the Continuity of Government Act (2013) had been in place during the Emergency of 1964-67, the Ashta Pradhan would have invoked Article 3 to remove Premier Malhotra.

Powers and Roles

Duties

As the Chairman of the Central Union Government, the Premier leads the Cabinet (Ashta Pradhan) as well as leading the major political party in the Shahee Sansad as required by convention. Being a member of the Ashta Pradhan comes with powers but as the Chairman, the Premier holds additional and exclusive powers including the ability to nominate individuals to serve as Cabinet Ministers to be appointed by the Monarch.

The Premier is tasked with leading the Ashta Pradhan and wider Central Union Government and as such has the authority to direct government policy. Due to the parliamentary system adopted in the Constitution, the ability of the Premier to dictate government policy alone is limited by their political strength, strength of individual ministers and the size of their majority in the Shahee Sansad.

Additional duties of the Premier include:

• Present the Government's legislative agenda to the Shahee Sansad
• Representing the country abroad at high level meetings and summits
• Appointing Civil Servants
• Nominating individuals to the federal judiciary
• Nominating individuals to head the branches of the armed forces
• Nominating individuals to serve as ambassadors
• Nominating individuals to any other federal positions

The Premier is directly responsible to the Monarch and Shahee Sansad and as such must attend weekly meetings with the Monarch to discuss matters of state and report to the House of Representatives weekly to answer questions from MPs.

Privileges

As the Head of Government, the Premier is afforded several privileges with some being retained post-premiership. During the Premier's term in office, they are afforded the State House as their official residence and office. Additionally, the Premier has access to the numerous state guest houses owned by the government. The Premier and their immediate family are also given 24 hour security by the Royal Protection Service. This protection is continued on post-premiership for the Premier and their spouse only.

Raj One, a government plane

On the ground, the Premier travels in an armoured official state car within a convoy usually consisting of police outriders and armoured escorts. For travel by air for official duties, the Premier has access to a set of government helicopters and the national executive airfleet which consists of three executive class aircraft (pictured). When the Premier is onboard, the aircraft is given the designation "Raj Gov" whereas if the Monarch or member of the Royal family uses the aircraft it is given the designation "Raj One" or "Raj Two" respectively.

As Head of Government, the Premier ranks above any other individual on the national order of precedence with the exception of the Monarch, Royal Family and High Priest of Bishnupur. As soon as an individual is appointed Premier, they are made a Commander of the Kamal Kadesh, the nation's second highest order of chivalry. Premier's are also afforded the privilege of recommending citizens to the Monarch for awards including orders, decorations and medals. An annual "Puraskasoch" is produced by the Palace on the advice of the Premier which awards between one to two thousand citizens with orders, decorations or medals.

List of Premiers

Premiers under Krishan VI

Maharaja Krishan VI

Portrait		Name	Term of office	Government	Elections & Mandates
1		Baiju Pahir Kapadia	1946 - 1951 (5 years)	Kapadia Premiership 1st Rajyani Ministry	1946	Majority Government
2		Anand Mahanti	1951 - 1955 (4 years)	Mahanti Premiership 2nd Rajyani Ministry	1951	Majority Government
3		Onkar Jariwala	1955 - 1960 (5 years)	Jariwala Premiership 3rd & 4th Rajyani Ministries	1955 1959	Majority Government Minority Government
4		Abhinav Devdhar Malhotra	1960 - 1961 (1 year)	Malhotra Premiership 5th Rajyani Ministry	1960	Majority Government

Premiers under Rajaram V

Maharaja Rajaram V

Portrait		Name	Term of office	Government	Elections & Mandates
4		Abhinav Devdhar Malhotra	1961 - 1964 (3 years)	Malhotra Premiership 5th Rajyani Ministry	1960	Majority Government

Premiers under Shakti III

Maharani Shakti III

Portrait		Name	Term of office	Government	Elections & Mandates
4		Abhinav Devdhar Malhotra	1964 - 1967 (3 years)	Malhotra Premiership 5th & 6th Rajyani Ministries	1965	Majority Government
5		Anil Bhattacharya	1967 - 1968 (>1 year)	Bhattacharya Premiership 7th Rajyani Ministry	--	National Unity Government
6		Akshey Chakarvarti	1968 - 1978 (10 years)	Chakarvarti Premiership 8th & 9th Rajyani Ministries	1968 1973	Majority Government Majority Government
7		Balram Mulani	1978 - 1980 (2 years)	1st Mulani Premiership 10th Rajyani Ministry	1978	Majority Government
8		Karan Kagalwala	1980 - 1984 (4 years)	Kagalwala Premiership 11th Rajyani Ministry	1980	Majority Government

Premiers under Krishan VII

Maharaja Krishan VII

Portrait		Name	Term of office	Government	Elections & Mandates
8		Karan Kagalwala	1984 - 1985 (1 year)	Kagalwala Premiership 11th Rajyani Ministry	1980	Majority Government
9		Balram Mulani	1985 - 1988 (3 years)	2nd Mulani Premiership 12th & 13th Rajyani Ministries	1985 1987	Majority Government Coalition Government
10		Kalyani Bajpeyi	1988 - 1995 (7 years)	Bajpeyi Premiership 14th & 15th Rajyani Ministries	1988 1992	Majority Government Majority Government
11		Manas Gulati	1995 - 2000 (5 years)	Gulati Premiership 16th Rajyani Ministry	1995	Majority Government
12		Ravi Sharma	2000 - 2010 (10 years)	Sharma Premiership 17th & 18th Rajyani Ministries	2000 2005	Majority Government Majority Government
13		Madhava Thakur	2010 - incumbent (11 years)	Thakur Premiership 19th, 20th & 21st Rajyani Ministries	2010 2015 2020	Coalition Government Coalition Government Coalition Government

Living former Premiers

There are four living former Premiers of the Kingdom of Rajyaghar:

• 

  Karan Kagalwala
  (1980-1985)

• 

  Kalyani Bajpeyi
  (1988-1995)

• 

  Manas Gulati
  (1995-2000)

• 

  Ravi Sharma
  (2000-2010)