As the Rajya Sabha continued to witness disruptions since the winter session began on December 11 last year, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said here on Wednesday the nation cannot emerge stronger without a shared Parliamentary agenda among different political parties. He said this after releasing the ‘Rajya Sabha Calendar 2019’ in the presence of senior leaders of different parties in Parliament House.
Referring to the persisting turbulence in the Upper House, Naidu invoked 12 preceding chairmen of the Rajya Sabha who insisted on ensuring effective functioning of the House so as to contribute to nation building.
“I am pained by our inability to ensure convergence of different agendas into a national agenda. No nation can emerge stronger without such a shared parliamentary agenda,” he said after the calendar launch. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad were also present at the launch.
“Parliamentary institutions can’t be held captive to the competing agendas. We can’t afford to lose any more time in lending a degree of maturity to our democratic processes and institutions. The civility of proceedings in Parliamentary institutions is a certain barometer of an aspiring nation finding it’s feet and fulfilling it’s quest,” he said. The 2019 calendar features 65 leaders, including 13 former chairmen, 12 former deputy chairpersons, 26 leaders of the House and 14 leaders of the opposition, since the inception of the Upper House in 1952.
Referring to this, Naidu noted that the calendar is a chronicle of political changes and the history of the Rajya Sabha since 1952. Describing the calendar as innovative, imaginative and inspiring, the chairman recalled what his predecessors had said about the functioning of the House and expressed hope that it would serve as a reminder to all the leaders and members about the need for its effective functioning.
The calendar features one chairman on each page along with the quotes of what they had said about the expectations from the House and its members. The calendar reveals that the Upper House did not have a leader of opposition for 34 years since the Rajya Sabha came into being.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has the distinction of being the leader of opposition and leader of the House in Rajya Sabha for the longest duration of over six years and 10 years respectively.
While the first leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha was Shyam Nandan, Congress (O)’s first leader of the House was Narasimha Gopalaswami Ayyangar while the first deputy chairman was SV Krishnamoorthy Rao.
Rajya Sabha chairmen who went on to become presidents were Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Dr Zakir Husain, VV Giri, R Venkataraman, Shanker Dayal Sharma and KR Narayanan. The first leader of the House to become president was Pranab Mukherjee and the first deputy chairperson to become president was Pratibha Devisingh Patil.
Naidu said “as a humble successor to these 12 men of wisdom, over the last 17 months, I have been trying to impress upon the members only three words ‘Discuss, Debate and Decide’.” “My anguish over the state of affairs in the House so far had only limited impact,” Naidu said.