LS has significance over RS as it is elected on manifesto: FM

Reigniting the debate on the supremacy of the Lok Sabha over the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the directly elected House has a significant role in decision making in a democracy as it is elected on a manifesto unlike the Upper House.

Jaitley, who had first raised the debate a few months ago, when Opposition parties using their majority had stalled the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha, said the mandate of people is with the Lok Sabha, which is directly elected. On why the bonhomie witnessed in cricketing matters where leaders across party line dissolve differences in deciding the fate of the sport, is not witnessed in Parliamentary politics, he said: “Well politics is not cricket”. Jaitley said however that no Bill was perpetually blocked by the Rajya Sabha since the beginning of reforms in 1991.

“If you see pragmatically the party character in India, I don’t foresee in reasonable future a government, which has at any point of time an absolute majority in the Upper House. We have political parties in the regions which are strong, they win their own regions, and therefore those who sit in the Centre as far as the Upper House is concerned will always be the balances,” Jaitley said. 

The minister was replying to a question on the supremacy of the Lok Sabha, which has already passed a Bill to create a unified common market for all commodities (GST), over the Rajya Sabha.