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File photo of Rajya Sabha President M. Venkaiah Naidu
NEW DELHI: The Opposition has had an advantage in Rajya Sabha for 39 of the 68 years in terms of numbers, but this did not have a negative impact on the development of laws, despite other concerns that arose, Rajya Sabha, President M Venkaiah Naidu he said Wednesday. He said this while recounting the journey of the Alto House in a Facebook post on the 68th anniversary of their first session.
“The Rajya Sabha Election and Holding Mode and Lok Sabha are different. This could lead to a situation where the Government of the time has the majority as required in the Lok Sabha and does not have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. This is what had happened over the years, “he said.
While this first happened during 1968-70, it stayed that way for the past 31 years, he said.
Naidu said Rajya Sabha held 5,472 sessions and passed 3,857 bills until this year’s Budget Session, even when he asserted his independence on a few occasions.
He referred to three joint sessions in 1961, 1978 and 2002 when the Rajya Sabha rejected the Dowry Prohibition Bill, 1959, the Banking Commission (Repeal) Bill, 1977, and the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2002, respectively. In 1959, the then government had a majority in the Upper House.
The Rajya Sabha also differed from the Lok Sabha when it rejected the constitutional bill (twenty-fourth amendment) of 1970, which sought to abolish the private purses of former rulers, and two other bills to amend the constitution in 1989 that sought to strengthen to the panchayats and municipalities that Later became the Acts of Parliament.
Referring to the delay in the passage of other bills by the Upper House, Naidu said that if they amounted to verifying “hasty legislation”, the Rajya Sabha passed five bills amending the Constitution in one day on 25 August 1994, when the government then did not have the numbers.
Naidu recalled that the Upper House passed several important bills related to GST, IBC, triple talaq, J&K reorganization, citizenship amendment, etc., despite the fact that the current government does not have the numbers.
“This suggests that no case can be brought against Rajya Sabha for being an obstructionist in drafting the law,” he said.
He further noted that, regardless of the composition of the Chamber, the time spent on legislation was still 29% of the total working time of the Upper House.
Speaking about the way forward, Naidu said: “It should be letting the House discuss, debate and decide on each issue. If the perception is that political considerations form the basis of the increasing disruptions, then all stakeholders should address it. all sections of Rajya Sabha. ”
“The line between obstruction and interruption is thin and should be pushed aside,” he said.
In tracing the evolution of the Rajya Sabha, Naidu stated that he is becoming an increasingly deliberative body that has spent 33.54 pc of House time discussing issues of public importance during 1978-2014; 41.42 pc during 2005-14 and a maximum of 46.59 pc during 2015-19.
However, the president expressed concern about the decrease in time spent on the House’s oversight function amid the growing trend of disruptions eroding the House’s productivity.
He noted that Rajya Sabha spent 39.50 pc of total time to secure executive accountability during 1978-2004, which decreased to 21.99 pc during 2005-14 and then to 12.34 pc during 2015-19.
This was mainly due to the “Question Time be abandoned due to interruptions, “he said.
Naidu reported that the functional productivity of the Rajya Sabha used to be around 100 pc until 1997 and it slipped to 87 pc during 1998-2004, to 71 pc during 2005-14 and then to 61 pc during the next five years.
“Since 1978, the annual productivity of the Rajya Sabha has been 100 pc in just 12 years and has never been 100 pc in the last 29 years,” he said, adding that the lowest annual productivity of 38.63 pc was recorded in 2018. .
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