The PM’s silence in the Rajya Sabha was not just a procedural lapse — it was a grave insult to the federal character of our democracy. The House of States was treated with utter contempt. I personally had to fight for this bill
The monsoon session, which ended today on the 21st of August, has been a total washout. Before the session, the Pahalgam tragedy happened, and Operation Sindoor was launched. Many issues begged the question. A special session was demanded to understand the national implications of war. Instead of responding to the genuine demand of the opposition, dates were announced in advance to avoid holding the session. So much speculation, rumour and deliberate misinformation gave rise to fear and insecurity across India. To compound the injury, on the very first day of the session, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar abruptly resigned after chairing a half-day of Parliament. There was no clarity. It contributed to more confusion and more speculation. As of now, he has vanished, and we have no idea what has happened to him. No visuals, no accountability. The arrogance in governance belittles the country’s second most important constitutional position. If he was so unwell, why was he not made to resign before the session began?
Issues of grave public importance were brushed under the carpet in the Upper House. In this unprecedented situation, the opposition remains resolute in raising questions and conducting its constitutional duties, even as the government delayed discussions on Operation Sindoor by a week. The Prime Minister goes abroad on foreign visits. The Prime Minister chose to skip his address to the Rajya Sabha entirely. Since Independence, every Prime Minister, regardless of party, has honoured the convention of addressing both Houses on matters of national importance. Today, that convention lies ignored.
The PM’s silence in the Rajya Sabha was not just a procedural lapse — it was a grave insult to the federal character of our democracy. The House of States was treated with utter contempt. I personally had to fight for this bill. The Income Tax (No. 2) Bill, 2025 — which has serious implications for every taxpayer in India — was passed in just three minutes. This bill gives tax authorities sweeping powers to intrude into citizens’ privacy — emails, digital records, social media accounts — during surveys and searches. Instead of strengthening safeguards — what are the safeguards? How do you protect data? None of these questions has been answered.
This Government is legalising surveillance and trying to make India a police state. Tax terrorism on the middle class has unfortunately become the hallmark of this government. They guillotined 12 bills — without debate and accountability — such as the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2025, the Manipur GST (Amendment) Bill, and others. These were pushed through in under 15 minutes each, some in just 5 minutes. Even the crucial Statutory Resolution on the continuation of President’s Rule in Manipur, which has grave political implications, was passed practically in half an hour without substantive discussion. Parliament was reduced to a rubber stamp. On the last day, in the Rajya Sabha, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, was passed without any discussion; neither was the Bill discussed nor were any amendments proposed by the members entertained. This shows how the BJP is systematically weakening parliamentary democracy.
It is the responsibility of the government to run the House, and it is the opposition’s responsibility to raise matters that have grave repercussions for the people. Raising matters of disenfranchising lakhs of voters in Bihar through Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and protesting inside and outside the House, got no response from the government. We knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court, on the deletion of 65 lakh voters, largely from vulnerable communities, under SIR. The Election Commission of India (ECI) and the government had to step back when the Honourable Court directed the former to publish the electoral list of deleted voters in a machine-readable format. This is tantamount to ceding administrative authority to the judiciary because of the inherent inefficiency and lack of accountability of the executive.
The BJP and the ECI have no answers to the Leader of the Opposition in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The vote chori, which now resonates, shows that it has been orchestrated, and the electoral process subverted. The government is trying to brazen it out, but only compounds the injury. The ECI is now viewed as the “Evasive Commission of India”.
On the penultimate day of the session, the government brought in the 130th Constitutional Amendment Bill and two other bills to remove the PM, Ministers, and CMs, without consulting the opposition. These bills were neither on the List of Business nor were they discussed in the Business Advisory Committee, which actually steers parliamentary proceedings, thus undermining the people’s mandate. And it was one more stone in subverting democratic structures.
This is a conspiratorial attempt to dislodge elected governments at the whims and fancies of ED, CBI and police officers. It strips citizens of their right to elect or vote out a government of their choice, handing that power to ED–CBI officers controlled by the ruling regime. A “kill switch” for opposition regimes: forget backdoor horse-trading. With this Bill, the BJP can topple opposition governments within 30 days, weaponising arrests to destabilise democracy itself. It seeks to dismantle the basic structure of the Constitution and severely undermines the judiciary, which alone has the authority to decide guilt or innocence based on evidence. The morality argument put out by the BJP lacks credibility and raises more questions than answers. Every politician faces false cases. Even the PM in the framework is only illusory because it has not been spelt out who arrests the Prime Minister and who is the authority that can execute this.
A constitutional amendment requires 363 MPs in the Lok Sabha. The BJP’s Nitish–Naidu–dependent alliance has barely 293, while the opposition bloc has 234. How did the government even perceive that they would be able to implement or execute this in Parliament? It only goes to prove that it is yet another diversionary tactic from the vote-chori issue which has already resonated across the nation. It is not a reform. It is not a regulatory bill. It is only to terrorise and strikes at the heart of democracy, violating the very core of the Constitution and trampling on the will of the people. Ideally, it should have concluded on a positive note with the government willing to be accountable, transparent and democratic. This is the self-goal that the BJP has achieved.
The writer is a Rajya Sabha MP from the Indian National Congress and a former Union Cabinet Minister