Dignity of the Upper House – To be Upholded

M Venkaiah Naidu recently took the oath of the office of the vice president of the India and along with this he also assumes his job as the ex officio chair man of the rajya sabha and hence will be required to balance the various types of the contrarian views that very usually come up by the various respective members of the rajya sabha. The rajya sabha as known predominantly remains a very deliberative body that it self is able to discharge its own pace at any point of the time. The governments of the day could very well experience the less than the hurried rhythm of its working as slowing down of a particular process that is or has to be carried out. Now here comes the factor that needs to be taken care of and this factor revolves around the newly appointed vice president of the India, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu as the ex officio chairman of the rajya sabha will be to address the concerns of the members across the various types of the aisles. Unlike most of the predecessors, Naidu will surely have the very important and the rare opportunity to receive the various types of the felicitations from the august house on the day he takes the charge. Baring Shri Sarvepalli Radha Krishnan, the first president of the independent India, who was the one who occupied the second highest constitutional office for the two terms, on most of the occasions in the past, either the house was not in the session or in some of the cases there was an interim break. An hour after being administered the oath by the president; Naidu will have the rare opportunity to chair the last day of the current monsoon session in his new assigned role. Naidu is coming to the vice president’s office with the very unique distinction of having been a member of the council of the states for a very prolonged period. This position as assumed brings to him and also to the whole house, an unparalleled advantage at such a time and such a scenario when the debate over the role, the responsibilities and the relevance of the rajya sabha remains alive.

Over the past two years, the leader of the house and the finance minister of the India, Shri Arun Jaitley, defended the move of the prime minister of the India Shri Narendra Modi and his government to tag a clutch of the proposed legislation under an omni bus money bill and hence invoking the article 110 of the constitution. It was towards the end of the budget session that Shri Arun Jaitley defended it with full power posing a question in the parliamentary democracy where in the wisdom of the directly elected house is repeatedly questioned by the house that is always elected in directly.

The union minister of the India Shri Arun Jaitley is very eminently qualified to hold the strong point of view on this issue. During his long and the distinguished career as member of the parliament of the India, he was and still is an illustrious member of the house and as a result of this is holding very key and the eminent positions, which included to be appointed as the leader of the opposition. The role of Shri Arun Jaitley was recognised by the fellow members in order to bestow the honours of the best member of the parliament on him a few years ago. Ironically, another prominent member of the bharatiya Janata Party, its president Shri Amit Shah articulated a similar view that in a democratic republic, the lok sabha should always have the supremacy. The argument advanced is that the party holds the majority in the house of the people, should have its way on the legislation cleared by the directly elected chamber. Incidentally, Shri Amit Shah makes a debut as the newest member of the house having been elected for the first time recently. The role and the relevance of the council of the states has figured periodically since the constituent assembly deliberated and also as a result of this, took a final view after the Gopala Swamy Ayyangar in a reply to the debate observed. The need for the second chamber has been felt practically all over the world where ever there are the federations of any of the importance. After the entire question for us all to take in to the consideration is that the whether it performs any of the use full function or not. At the most what we expect the second of the chamber to do is perhaps only to hold the dignified debates on the key and the important issues and then finally delay the delegation which might be the out come of the passions of the moment un till the passions have subsided and the calm consideration could be bestowed on the measures which will become the legislature and hence we shall take care to provide in the constitution that when ever on any of the very important matter relating to the department of the finance, there is at a lot of the times a conflict between the house of the people and the council of the states, it is the view of the whole of the house of the people that should all the times prevail. That the strength of the bharatiya Janta party and all the various alliance partners was inadequate added to woes of the ruling coalition’s attempt to aggressively move through the various major and the drastic changes in the existing laws or the legislate new ones, be it the land acquisition or the goods and the service tax. A very determined opposition check mated attempts by the ruling coalition to have its way on the several bills passed by the lok sabha by forcing a referral to a select committee for the greater parliamentary over sight. This is a prescribed practice that saw a surge in the recent times. The tactic that the opposition used in such a made scenario could also been viewed in the context of the reluctance of the government in following another practice of the referring bills to the parliamentary committees of the jurisdiction for the scrutiny. Shri Arun Jaitley as the leader of the opposition in the rajya sabha had once said that the elected government can always have its way but provided the opposition has had its way and the say in the house. The out going chair man Shri Hamid Ansari’s experiment to make an insulation of the 60 minutes of the question hour from the various disruptions that are caused when the members of the house hold the elected government responsible for the various types of the work that has been or not been done, was very largely successful. In the very interest of the informed law making, another fine tradition was finally evolved with the help of the unwritten pact, not to push through the legislation when the house is not in the order. Hence as a result of all this, when the parties swapped the sides in the house, concession sought on this count was politely decline by the gently reminding of the solemn promises made by the parties on the either side of the aisle. The change of the sides should not at any of the times result in the change of the positions.

The Rajya Sabha predominantly remains a deliberate body that always discharges its function of the legislation at the pace of its own. The governments of the day as a result of all this have been forced to go through such a scenario that the less than hurried rhythm of its working has ultimately slowed down the process of the house. But like the other side of the coin, the larger objective remains unhindered just as in the United States, law making in the senate is likened to be pouring a cup of the hot coffee in the senatorial saucer just in order to allow it to cool down first. The main challenge before the new chair man remains to address the concerns of the all the members across the all the types of the aisles. He has to do this while safe guarding the role of the chamber as envisaged by the founding fathers of the process, provide the adequate required space to all those who hold the contrarian point of views and then finally dissuade the government from bringing the legislation in the opinion of the experienced law makers that finally are in the need of the greater members of the parliament and resulting in the required scrutiny before the house with the help of the clubbing varied subjects with the help of the omni bus bill and only this appears to be an easy way out and a solid solution to such an scenario. Now here there is a very clear message for the congress party to read and then under stand and come up with a solid solution for the survival of its key members and also for the survival of the party. It is no secret now that Shri Rahul Gandhi is waiting in the strategising the gift of the gab, crafts of the politics and the socio economic and the geo graphical nuances of the Indian federal system. He has been and still remains a victim of the circumlocution and hence also keeps the swaying to and fro with out doing the proper home work. The point raised by the former union minister of the UPA government Shri Jai Ram Ramesh is very obvious and genuine and practical in the nature. The congress party in the today’s scenario can not simply harp on the out dated ways of being in the politics in order to counter the dynamic Shri Narendra Modi and then ultimately is whole set of the ministers and ultimately as the whole the modi government or to measure up to the changed and still changing very quickly situation in the politics of the nation of the India. So it can be said that the remark of the former union minister of the UPA government is like a wake up call for the party of the congress as this is a truth and is very clearly evident that the congress party is facing an existential crises and is a time that is actually giving a very hard message to all the leaders of the congress party that it is telling tem to wake up from their slumber to the realities of the time that has changed very much now and is also telling them to think and then take various necessary and accurate steps on order to save the grand old party of the India from being eclipsed in the coming near future. At the last, this time Shri Jai Ram Ramesh has been able to exercise his fundamental right to the speech and the expression enshrined in the constitution of the India, though in a very hush hush tone, with out taking the risk of annoying the custodians of the party. He has always shown the mirror to the congress party which at times has been observed not to be ready to accept the realities that are present at the level of the ground. The leader of the opposition in the rajya sabha, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, immediately after the declaration of the result of the vice presidential election, instead of accepting the annoying defeat of the congress party, was seen telling the media persons that their numbers had increased from the past. He was the one who was able to ignore the fact that the numbers of the congress party are decreasing day by day and that also not only just in the rajya sabha but also in the states too and the main reason behind this is the fact that there has been a lot of the cross voting, defections and also the revolts inside the party and this all needs to be looked in to on an urgent basis as if not taken on the priority basis, it will surely mark a question mark on the existence of the congress party.