Venkaiah Naidu describes Arun Jaitley as man of many facets

New Delhi: Describing “parliamentary form of government” as one of the features of the “basic structure of the Constitution,” vice-president and chairman, Rajya Sabha, M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said that the feature is “beyond the power of Parliament to be amended as per the settled position  in the matter.”  Delivering the first Arun Jaitley Memorial lecture on strengthning of parliamentary institutions, Mr Naidu pitched for simultaneous polls and said the idea needs to be seriously considered and discussed by all stakeholders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also raised the issue on various occasions and asked for a debate on it.  

Lauding the contributions of late Union minister and BJP leader, Mr Naidu said that Jaitley was a “multi-tasker” and “multi-faceted genius.” The Rajya Sabha chairman said that Jaitley, as both the leader of the Opposition and leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha played a significant role in several landmark legislations being passed and also resolving stalemates on several occasions. Mr Jaitley had passed away in August this year after a long illness.

Accepting that ‘First Pass The Post (FPTP)’ system of  electing people’s representatives is “faulty” to the extent that MPs and MLAs are being elected with substantially less than 50 percent of voter support, Mr Naidu however, said that there is no alternative at present.

Mr Naidu said that the Constitution continue to strengthen the democracy despite naysayers casting doubt over its efficacy in the initial days. He also called for anti-defection law to rectify the grey areas and pitched for a “special bench” to expedite criminal cases against politicians fighting elections.

The Vice President also said that there should be more representation of women in legislatures.

While talking about amendments to the Constitution, Mr Naidu said the amendments are made as and when required and also cited the abrogation of Article 370, which gave special powers to Jammu and Kashmir. He said the bill to abrogate the Article was passed by both houses of Parliament irrespective of serious differences among the members of ruling and opposition parties over multiple issues.

Stressing that parliamentary system can be strengthened only if its roots, the democratic values, are strong, Mr Naidu said the late BJP leader was one such parliamentarian who “strengthened the system by ably using the tools of democracy, be it debating, raising questions or listening to other’s arguments in the House.”

In his address, he also pitched for instituting a “special bench” to expedite hearing of criminal cases against politicians fighting elections.

Noting that there has been a decline of long held perception that caste, community, region and religion influence the voting preferences, Mr Naidu said it needs to be completely stamped out.