Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu who’ tenure ends next week, has been the most travelled Vice President of India having visited almost all State capitals and UTs including the North-Eastern States and the far and remote places of the country. Besides his tenure as ex-officio chairman of the RÃ jya Sabha, Naidu’s period was marked by low productivity of the Upper House to start with in 2017 and a recovery later.
According to the officials of the Vice President Secretariat, out of the 13 full sessions Naidu presided over till the Budget session this year, the productivity of the first five sessions has been in the range of only 6.80 per cent to 58.80 per cent. It substantially improved in six of the next eight sessions clocking productivity in the range of 76 per cent to 105 per cent with five sessions working for about 100 per cent of the scheduled time.
Fifty eight issues were primarily responsible for the disruptions and forced adjournments of the House during this period.
57 per cent of the sittings of Rajya Sabha have witnessed disruptions and forced adjournments of the House for either part of the day or a full day. The issue of Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh was raised in 36 sittings across four sitting starting with the highest number of 24 times during the Budget session of 2018,” said a official statement.
The next four issues included the passing of three farm laws and farmers’ protests, the Pegasus spyware, constitution of Cauvery Water Management Board and the suspension of 12 Members in the winter session of 2021.
During Vice President Naidu’s tenure about 78 per cent of the Rajya Sabha Members daily attended the House. While about 3 per cent didn’t do so, 30 per cent of members reported full attendance in different sessions.
Over the years since 1978 for which detailed data regarding the functioning of Rajya Sabha is maintained, the House has come to spend lesser and lesser time on its ‘Oversight’ function of ensuring the accountability of the executive to the Parliament primarily, due to sustained low utilization of Question Hour.
Known for travelling across the country as a party functionary and as Union Minister before becoming the Vice President, it is understood that Naidu was advised by the Prime Minister Modi to travel across the country in furtherance of promoting unity and spirit of nationalism and inspiring various stakeholders to participate in the mission of building a new India.
The themes taken up by Naidu for extensive outreach during his travels include; improving farmers' incomes and promoting sustainable agriculture; taking the research findings from lab to land; motivating the youth to script a rewarding future and thereby further the cause of the nation; amplifying the efforts and outcomes from innovations of different kind; empowering women; rich cultural heritage of India and the underlying philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam; India becoming a Vishwa Guru again etc, said a note of Naidu’s profile released by his office.
Given the large number of requests for book releases and interactions with academic groups, experts, student, farmers, civil society organizations etc. Naidu got a mini conference hall constructed at his official residence so as to avoid too many travels in the national capital which inconvenience the common people through traffic regulations etc.
Besides as the Chancellor of a few universities, Naidu took active interest in bettering their performance.