Rajya Sabha election: Given murky process, do we still need the Upper House?

Elections to the Rajya Sabha were always a sordid affair. But even by its questionable track record, the recently concluded polls have touched a new low. There’s no doubt that the moment to begin a national conversation about the utility of Rajya Sabha is long overdue. One must ask: do we any longer need the Council of States, originally created to reflect the diversity of India? The Rajya Sabha website, in its introduction, states: “Extensive debate took place in the Constituent Assembly regarding the utility or otherwise of a Second Chamber in Independent India and ultimately, it was decided to have a bicameral legislature for independent India mainly because a federal system was considered to be most feasible form of Government for such a vast country with immense diversities.”

Lofty words indeed! But in reality, elections to the Council of States as they are conducted today are nothing but a parody of its stated objective. If the very institution of Parliament has undergone a steady decline over the last two decades, the twisted, underhand process of indirect elections to the Upper House – supposedly the House of erudite personalities – has lost even more credibility. A question mark — larger than ever before — hangs over the validity as well as legitimacy of the Upper House. Do Rajya Sabha members, many of them not even domiciles of the states they represent, do justice to the cause they are meant to serve? Clearly not.

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[caption id=“attachment_1634211” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption]

On the eve of the recent elections, a sting operation conducted by a national television channel revealed how political parties were trying to bribe independent MLAs into voting for their respective candidates. MLAs from smaller states like Jharkhand are frequently targets of unscrupulous businessmen, aspiring for Rajya Sabha membership. It can be easily argued that the practice of buying one’s way into Rajya Sabha has rendered the House redundant, save as a space to indulge cronyism and patronage.

Unlike in Lok Sabha elections, where party nominees have to go campaign hard, do constituency work, and seek a mandate from the people they aspire to represent (which give this electoral process a certain amount of transparency), Rajya Sabha polls are primarily driven by murky backroom manipulations. The brazen use of money power, even though integral to every election – state and national – is even more flagrantly on display in Rajya Sabha polls.

Political parties throw their weight behind industrialists, media barons and editors they consider to be friendly to their politics as well as policies. The aspirants, for their part, serve interests of the parties, in the hope of extracting their support for their candidacy. More and more, we are witnessing a culture of trade off among these interest groups. If the money bags in the past were already driving hard bargains with political parties, they seem to have made themselves indispensable to the system now.

Consider for instance, the case of the absconding business tycoon Vijay Mallya, who is currently facing a number of serious charges, including money laundering in a loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore. That Mallya was twice elected to the Rajya Sabha with the support of both the Congress and BJP, speaks volumes for the rot in the election process. Or take the latest example of the Zee Group’s chairman Subhash Chandra, who, despite being implicated in a Rs100 crore extortion case, has got elected to the House with the BJP’s backing.

More often than not, even the nominated members – mostly celebrities from different walks of life – show little interest in the proceedings in the House. Even while getting full benefits of their privileged position as MPs, many do not bother to attend the House. “Poor attendance of two celebrity Members of Parliament (MPs), cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar  and Bollywood actor Rekha, came in for criticism from fellow parliamentarians on Friday. While Tendulkar, a nominated member, has attended the House on only three occasions, Rekha, also a nominated member, was present in the House for seven days,” said a report in the Business Standard in 2014.

Given the situation, the existence of Rajya Sabha can only be justified if its members are directly elected by citizens of the states they seek to represent. Or else, elections will continue to be the charade they have become.