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Fifty-eight issues led to Rajya Sabha disruptions in past five years

Special category status for Andhra Pradesh has led to the highest number of 36 sittings being disrupted
Last Updated 11 August 2022, 07:13 IST

Fifty-eight issues broadly led to adjournments of Rajya Sabha in the past five years when M Venkaiah Naidu was Chairman with the special category status for Andhra Pradesh, farm laws, Pegasus and Cauvery water dispute leading the disruption chart for the most number of days.

Of the 58 issues that impacted the functioning of the House, according to ‘Rajya Sabha – 2017-22: An Overview', around 20 issues raised by the Opposition were the cause of disruption for more than two sittings.

Of the 248 scheduled full-day sittings, the booklet released by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat analysing the tenure of Vice President Naidu as the presiding officer of the Upper House, the House was disrupted on 141 days (57 per cent) while 107 sittings were free of disruptions. The overall productivity of the House during the five years of Naidu was 68.35 per cent of 913:11 hours.

Special category status for Andhra Pradesh has led to the highest number of 36 sittings being disrupted followed by the protest against the now repealed farm laws and farmers' protest on 19 days.

Use of Pegasus spyware against Opposition leaders and those holding Constitutional posts as well as the demand for constitution of Cauvery Water Management Board triggered trouble during 17 sittings. The demand for termination of suspension of MPs led to adjournments during 12 sittings.

Frauds in public sector banks (9), hike in fuel prices (8), misuse of CBI (7), Supreme Court order on SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act (6), CAA and NRC (6), Rafale (5), poaching of Congress MLAs in Karnataka (5), 2020 Delhi riots (5) and then Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde seeking removal of the word secularism from Constitution (4) were other major issues that rocked the House during Naidu’s tenure.

Naidu’s tenure also saw 936 of 3,525 starred questions orally answered while MPs making 1,526 Zero Hour submissions and 953 Special Mentions raising issues of public importance.

The booklet also showed that the functionality of Rajya Sabha, which has been steadily declining for 25 years from 1995, has been reversed during the last three years.

According to Parliament data, annual productivity of Rajya Sabha has been more than 100 per cent for 17 years since 1978 while in the next 27 years, it has been so only twice in 1998 and 2009. The lowest annual productivity has been 40 per cent during 2018.

It also showed that productivity was 95 per cent during 1995-97, 90 per cent during 1998-2003, over 80 per cent during 2004-13, which continued till the 248th session in 2019. This trend, however, has been reversed from the 249th session.

The decline in productivity has been steep during the first five full sessions (244th to 248th) presided over by Shri Venkaiah Naidu with the House clocking productivity of only 42.77 per cent. The 248th session held during January-February, 2019 recorded the lowest sessional productivity of only 6.80 per cent, data showed.

For the next eight sessions (249th to 256th), it showed, the productivity of Rajya Sabha has almost doubled to 82.34 per cent. The House functioned for 105 per cent of scheduled time during the Budget session of 2019. This has been the first session to report such high productivity during the tenure of Naidu marking a break from the past.

Four subsequent sessions, four more sessions clocked close to or above 100 per cent productivity. During the 13 sessions presided over by Naidu, Rajya Sabha has clocked productivity of 82.34 per cent for two thirds of the total sittings (173 of 261 sittings) enabling the reversal of declining productivity.

During Covid-19 pandemic, Rajya Sabha functioned for 951 hours though the House lost 26 sittings due to different waves of the pandemic.

The analysis also showed that the eight Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees of Rajya Sabha have held 558 meetings till June this year and submitted 369 reports. Due to regular review and monitoring of their functioning by Shri Naidu, the average duration of the meetings have substantially improved with an average attendance of over 45 per cent per meeting.

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(Published 11 August 2022, 02:34 IST)

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