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Venkaiah Naidu spoke about Rajya Sabha’s journey on the 68th anniversary of his first session (Archive)
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 law-making, despite other concerns that arose, Rajya Sabha President said on Wednesday, M. Venkaiah Naidu.
He said this while recounting the Upper House trip in a Facebook post on the 68th anniversary of his first session.
“The mode of choice and the tenure of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are different. This could lead to a situation where the day’s Government has the majority as required in Lok Sabha and does not have the numbers in 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 Services Commission Bill (Repeal), 1977, and the Bill Terrorism Prevention, 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 approval of other bills by the Upper House, Mr. Naidu said that if they amounted to verifying “hasty legislation”, the Rajya Sabha passed five bills amending the Constitution in a day on August 25, 1994, when the government did it. It doesn’t have the numbers.
Naidu recalled that the Upper House passed several important bills related to GST, IBC, triple talaq, Jammu and Kashmir 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 growing disruptions, all stakeholders should address it. Including 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, Mr. 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 because “Question Time was abandoned due to interruptions,” he said.
Mr. 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. .
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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