Don’t make RS clog in wheel of growth: Venkaiah to MPs

NEW DELHI : Expressing anguish over an “eminently forgettable” second half of the budget session, Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday cautioned the parliamentarians against making the Upper House a ‘clog in the wheel of progress’.

“What is on show is total obstruction of legislation and disregard of issues of public concern. Let us not be a party to this House becoming a clog in the wheel of progress,” Naidu said during his valedictory remark at the conclusion of the budget session in the Rajya Sabha.

Naidu also recalled the reservation expressed by India’s first PM, Jawaharhlal Nehru’s over the Upper House of Parliament during a Constituent Assembly debate for a second chamber of Parliament.

“Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who headed the Union Constitution Committee for reporting on the structure and function of the future legislature of our country had feared in 1936 that a Second Chamber (Council of States) will check any forward tendencies of the Lower House and will be reactionary. Are we making Nehru’s worst fears come true? We should not for the sake of our parliamentary democracy and the people,” Naidu said.

He added that senior leaders like former President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and parliamentarian Gopalaswamy Ayyengar backed the Rajya Sabha for holding “dignified debates on important issues and to delay legislation which might be the outcome of the passions of the moment until the passions have subsided.”

The Rajya Sabha chairman said that all parliamentarians, including those from the ruling party, were responsible for the logjam.

“At the end of such a long session, what is that we can show to the people of our country as our contribution towards addressing their concerns and furthering their genuine aspirations? I am afraid nothing. As a result, we are all the losers. This includes the Opposition, the ruling party, the government and most importantly, the people and the nation.”

Later, senior leaders of different took collective responsibility for the session washout and came up with suggestions to avoid its repetition.

In the second half of the budget session, the Upper House functioned for only 43 hours as a total of 113 hours were lost to disruptions.