AWAKENINGS

Rajya Sabha MPs Mohsina Kidwai (Congress), K C Tyagi (JD-U), Naresh Agrawal (SP), T K Rangarajan (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI) and Derek O ‘Brien ( Trinamool Congress) had given a notice to Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari accusing Mr.Panda of breach of privilege and contempt of the Upper House. What were the reasons for such an extreme action by the section of Rajya Sabha Members? These Rajya Sabha Members were outraged due to an article written by Mr. Jay Panda in the Times of India wherein he opined that reforms should be to reduce Rajya Sabha’s power to block the popular mandate and suggested favouring a rethink on veto power of Rajya Sabha. The extracted relevant portions of the said article are reproduced here in brief: 1. Nowhere else in the world are there as many legislative checks against the popular mandate of the electorate. Joint sessions of Parliament are no solution as they are impractical to convene frequently and ca