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| When Upper House has the upper hand | | | A Surya Prakash
The proliferation of
regional parties has
resulted in a major legislative gridlock in the Rajya Sabha. This may call for a fresh look at the constitutional provisions relating to law-making. Are we ready for this?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have secured the people's mandate in May 2014, but as the political conflict over the land acquisition Bill shows, his plans could get stymied because of his minority status in the Rajya Sabha. Since one-third of the seats of this House are filled afresh in biennial elections from State Assemblies, he will need a lucky run at the hustings in many States over the next four years, if he is to gain control of the Upper House. Meanwhile, what happens to his electoral promises which need to be translated into law?
It is said that the politics of confrontation between the two principal players - the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress - could lead to a possible joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament to secure passage of the controversial Bill. But, even this option could be dicey because of the strong reservations that many of the BJP's allies have, vis-à-vis the land acquisition law. An analysis of the strength of political parties in the Rajya Sabha since its inception shows that only two Prime Ministers - Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri - enjoyed a clear majority in this House throughout their tenures, and nine Prime Ministers were crippled by the lack of numbers.
The two Houses of Parliament were constituted for the first time in 1952. Though the Rajya Sabha today has 245 members, this was not always the case. It had 216 members to begin with and the Congress opened its innings in this House with 146 members - more than a two-thirds majority. This ballooned into a three-fourths majority in 1956. In fact, throughout the tenure of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, the strength of the Congress in this House ranged from 146 to 186. The party had 166 MPs in the Upper House when he died in 1964. His daughter Indira Gandhi too began her innings in 1966 with a comfortable majority in this House, but lost this perch after the famous Congress split in 1969. Her wing of the Congress became a minority with 99 MPs when 42 members broke away to form the Congress (O). This situation prevailed for three years until 1972, but she regained her majority in this House until she was trounced in the 1977 Lok Sabha poll. Prime Minister Morarji Desai too had to make do without a majority in this House during his tenure between 1977-79.
Thanks to defections from the other half of the Congress, Indira Gandhi secured a majority in the Rajya Sabha when she returned to power in 1980. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi too enjoyed a comfortable majority in this House for four years, but his strength dipped to 108 in a House of 245 following the Bofors scandal and the split engineered by VP Singh. The next Congress Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao, was not so lucky. Not only did he run a minority Government with just 232 MPs in the Lok Sabha and some ad hoc support from an assortment of parties, he also had to contend with a minority status in the Rajya Sabha where his strength ranged from 85-99. The National Democratic Alliance Government helmed by Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1988 and 2004 too survived on depleted oxygen in the Upper House. The strength of the BJP, which constituted the core of this alliance, ranged from just 45-49, and his biggest ally in the House was the Telugu Desam Party with 13 members. The United Progressive Alliance that dislodged the NDA, also had problems in garnering support in the Rajya Sabha. The strength of the Congress, which formed the core of this alliance, ranged from 71-73 throughout its 10 years in power. It got some additional support from allies and a string of small parties and independents. But, it banked heavily on ad hoc, tactical support offered by parties outside the alliance, such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the two communist parties. The Jan Sangh, the precursor to the BJP, had one seat in the Rajya Sabha in 1952. As a party, the BJP acquired some strength only in the 1990s when it crossed the 40 mark. In the last two decades, its strength in this House has hovered between 41and 51. All this has serious consequences for law-making and governance because the Constitution stipulates that all Bills, except money Bills, have to be passed by both Houses of Parliament. If a Bill that is passed by one House is rejected by the other or the two Houses disagree on amendments to be made in the Bill, Article 108 authorises the President to summon the two Houses to meet in a joint-sitting to deliberate and vote on the Bill.
A joint-sitting of the two Houses of Parliament was called for the first time when the Rajya Sabha disagreed with the Lok Sabha on the Dowry Prohibition Bill in 1961. But this was not because the ruling party was short of numbers. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru commanded a strength of 164 in the Rajya Sabha at that time. This was an instance of genuine disagreement over a proposed law among members of the two Houses.
The ruling Janata Party Government sought a joint-sitting in May 1978, to secure passage of the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill, 1977, which was rejected by the Congress-dominated Rajya Sabha. The third time a joint-sitting became necessary was in 2002, when the Vajpayee Government wanted to see through the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, which was vehemently opposed by the Congress in the Upper House.
As stated earlier, only Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri had a clear majority in the Rajya Sabha throughout their tenures. Apart from them, only two other Prime Ministers managed a majority in that House for a substantial part of their innings (for 12 out of 17 years, in the case of Indira Gandhi; and four out of five years, in Rajiv Gandhi's case). Also, no Prime Minister has had majority support in that House for the last 26 years. The proliferation of regional parties clubbed with the impatience of the electorate leading to frequent turnover of parties has resulted in a major legislative gridlock in the Rajya Sabha since 1989.
This may call for a fresh look at the constitutional provisions relating to law-making because of the grave implications that this legislative logjam has on the working of duly elected Governments. Are we ready for this.
(Courtesy@daily Pioneer.com)
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