The trend of Undermining the Role of Upper House

The trend of Undermining the Role of Upper House

When the ruling party has a super majority in the House of Representatives, they sometimes take an attitude that undermines the role of the Upper House. This is especially so when divisions in the ruling party make it vulnerable to various pressures and factions.

Instruments to undermine the Upper House

There are two instruments to undermine the opposition members in the upper house.

In the first place, the ruling party dominates the upper house, which in this way, it can establish a majority of the ruling party members and jeopardizes the status of opposition members in policy formulation.

The second is to adopt a voice vote system so that all kinds of constructive motions of non-ruling members in exchanges between ruling and opposition parties would be distorted, for instance: when an opposition member wants to voice a certain opinion or to propose an agenda for debate, yes/no motion would be incorporated.

Role of Upper House

The Rajya Sabha has a very special role in the Indian parliament and especially in relation to the other house, “Lok Sabha. Some of the, are-

(i) Unlike the latter, which is elected for a period of five years, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), is a permanent body not subject to dissolution. One-third of its members retire after every two years, and are replaced by newly elected members. Thus there is a certain degree of continuity in the underlying policies of laws passed by Parliament.

(ii) Regional imbalance in India has been a major cause for concern. This is mainly because the population of the more developed states is more than the combined population of the under-developed states. One solution to this problem was to do away with the upper house and have only one chamber for both kinds of states.

(iii) In the Indian context, the upper house can play a guardian role with its ability to slow down legislation that comes through the lower house. This can forestall hasty or unreasonable legislation being passed due to populism. The positive impact of the upper house is experienced when there is a coalition government or a strong opposition party in the parliament.

(iv) Considering the vastness of the country and the pace of change it is experiencing, there are so many issues that beg for deliberation. The Rajya Sabha with its eminent members, therefore, fills a very important role in a holistic manner by bringing to public view not only questions of national importance but also major issues confronting various wings of the government and society in general.

(v) A look at the current composition of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha shows that women, religious, ethnic, and linguistic minority groups are not adequately represented in the Lok Sabha due to first past the post-election system. Thus, Rajya Sabha can make a place for people who may not be able to win a popular mandate.

(vi) The role of the upper house is to check the power of the lower house. The role of the main house is to govern according to its policies whereas with the help of these special powers upper house cannot be ruled out from forming governments.