On the very first day of new Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan assuming office, CPI(M) member John Brittas delivered a devastating indictment of parliamentary functioning, presenting hard statistics that exposed how the Upper House has been systematically stripped of its role as a revising chamber, with 34 per cent of bills between 2019 and 2024 being rammed through in less than one hour of discussion and nearly 60 per cent disposed of in under two hours of debate.

Invoking the vision of Dr B R Ambedkar, who had warned that the Rajya Sabha exists precisely to act as a bulwark against hasty and ill-considered legislation, Brittas thundered that annual sittings have plummeted from 135 days to a meager 55, turning robust deliberation into a mockery. He accused the ruling dispensation of weaponizing procedure to mute dissent, declaring that while the treasury benches will always “have their way,” the Opposition is now being deprived even of its fundamental democratic right to “have its say,” a deprivation he branded as the deepest malaise afflicting Indian democracy today.

The Kerala MP did not stop at numbers; he reminded the House of the chilling precedent of authoritarian control when, two years ago during a single Winter Session, an unprecedented 146 Opposition members were suspended en masse, effectively converting the Rajya Sabha into a one-party chamber where landmark and controversial bills were passed without a single dissenting voice, an episode that still haunts constitutional experts.

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Echoing the alarm, Samajwadi Party’s Javed Ali Khan demanded answers on why ministries routinely reject members’ questions and notices in ways that defy established rules, while NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) member Fauzia Khan called for an audit of actual speaking time granted to women MPs and insisted the Chair enforce a minimum 33 per cent allocation. Even NDA ally and JD(U) leader Ram Nath Thakur expressed unease over shrinking private members’ business and falling decorum, underscoring that the concern cuts across ideological lines.

With leaders from Left, regional, and even ruling coalition parties uniting in their criticism of lightning-fast lawmaking and vanishing debate, the newly appointed Chairman now faces an immediate and formidable challenge: to rescue the Rajya Sabha from sliding into a mere “bill-passing factory” and restore its stature as the solemn council of states envisioned by the makers of the Constitution.

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