Opposition dominated Upper House for 39 to 68 years: Naidu

Opposition dominated Upper House for 39-68 years: Naidu

Interesting research amidst the Corona lockdown, it has turned out that the Opposition has had an upper hand in the Rajya Sabha for 39 of the 68 years in terms of numbers. The information shared by Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu says that despite this, the legislative business was not adversely impacted, though other concerns did emerge.

"The mode of elections to and tenures of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are different. This could lead to a situation of the Government of the day having majority as required in the Lok Sabha and not having the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. This is what had happened over the years," Naidu noted while recounting the journey of the Upper House on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of its first sitting.

Naidu said the Rajya Sabha held 5,472 sittings and passed 3,857 Bills till the Budget Session this year, even as it asserted its independence on some occasions.

Sharing about the first sitting of Rajya Sabha on May 13, 1952, Naidu recounted the proceedings and mentioned the first observation in the House was made by the then Secretary SN Mukherjee, who read out the order of the President of India appointing Dr. S Radhakrishnan and SV Krishna Moorthy Rao.

And the first-ever observation in the House by Chairman Radhakrishnan while welcoming the Members was: "May I extend to you all a hearty welcome and express the hope that by our activities we will further the speedy and all-round progress of our people?"

As per the information, 197 Members including 9 women from 16 States made and subscribed to the oath or affirmation on the first day of the Council of States. The first Member to take the oath was  N.Gopalaswami Ayyengar, the then Minister of Defence, who was subsequently appointed the leader of the House. The first woman to take an oath was Pushpalata Das. Some other prominent members included Kunwarani Vijaya Raje, Prof. Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Violet Alva, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

Naidu recalled the Upper House passing several major Bills relating to GST, IBC, triple talaq, re-organization of J & K, citizenship amendment, etc, even though the present government does not have the numbers. “This suggests that no case can be made against the Rajya Sabha as being obstructionist in lawmaking," he noted.

He further observed that irrespective of the composition of the House, time spent on legislation remained 29 pc of the total functional time of the Upper House.

"The line between obstruction and disruption is thin and needs to be put aside," he said.

Tracing the evolution of the Rajya Sabha, Naidu stated that it is turning out to be more and more a deliberative body having spent 33.54 pc of the time of the House on discussing issues of public importance during 1978-2014; 41.42 pc during 2005-14 and a high of 46.59 pc during 2015-19.

The chairman, however, expressed concern over declining time spent on the oversight function of the House amidst rising trend of disruptions eroding the productivity of the House.

He observed that the Rajya Sabha spent 39.50 pc of the total time on ensuring the accountability of the executive from 1978-2004 which declined to 21.99 pc during 2005-14 and further to 12.34 pc during 2015-19.

This was primarily on account of the "Question Hour being abandoned due to disruptions", he said.

Naidu informed that the functional productivity of the Rajya Sabha used to be about 100 pc till 1997 and it slid to 87 pc during 1998-2004, to 71 pc during 2005-14 and further to 61 pc during the next five years.

"Since 1978, the annual productivity of the Rajya Sabha has been 100 pc in only 12 years and it 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.

He also referred to three Joint Sittings in 1961, 1978 and 2002 when the Rajya Sabha rejected the Dowry Prohibition Bill, 1959, the Banking Services Commission (Repeal) Bill, 1977, and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, 2002, respectively. In 1959, the then government had a majority in the Upper House.

The Rajya Sabha also differed with the Lok Sabha when it rejected the Constitution (Twenty-fourth Amendment) Bill, 1970, seeking to abolish privy purses to the erstwhile rulers and two more such Constitution Amendment Bills in 1989 seeking to strengthen the Panchayats and Municipalities which later became the Acts of Parliament.

Referring to the delaying of the passing of some other Bills by the Upper House, Naidu said that if they amounted to checking 'hasty legislation', the Rajya Sabha passed five Constitution Amendment Bills in a day on August 25, 1994, when the then Government did not have the numbers.