New Delhi, Dec 24: Attacking Congress for using its numbers to “paralyse” Rajya Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today backed the “campaign” for “redefining” its role as the two Houses are “pulling in different directions”.
Holding that the country is “disappointed” with the functioning of Parliament, Naidu accused the Congress of “cheating the people” by not allowing the government to do “what is expected of it”.
“This session has been a victim of a strategy conceived before its commencement which was to see that Parliament was paralysed come what may. Since the monsoon session, which was a near washout, the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha have been pulling in different directions, which is a matter of serious concern.
The Modi government’s legislative agenda has suffered a serious setback due to lack of support from the numerically stronger Congress-led opposition in the House. This had prompted Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to raise the question of how an “unelected” house could overrule the mandate of the “elected” house.
While the productivity of the Lok Sabha was 100.46 per cent during the Winter session, that of the Rajya Sabha was only 46 per cent, that too after it passed a number of bills in the last three days without much discussion which, Naidu said, was not a “healthy” trend.
