December 1, 2025
MP Derek O’Brien, Parliamentary Party Leader in Rajya Sabha, welcoming the new Chairman of Rajya Sabh
Sir, on this joyous occasion where you are presiding over this House for the first day, with your permission, I thought it would be appropriate to share this joyous occasion with three other very important persons — your spouse Madam Sumathiji; your son Harisastivel; and your daughter Abhirami; and for the whole family, we wish them well. From our family of the All India Trinamool Congress, whose Chairperson is Ms. Mamata Banerjee, our National General Secretary, Shri Abhishek Banerjee, all our MPs and everybody across the country, Greetings! Sir, we wish you good health. We wish you happiness. The first three speakers were looking back and they know you well, I have only met you once yesterday; so, I will stick to today and the future. On health, to you and your family, good health and I really mean it because you have moved from Coimbatore to a place here where the air can be a problem. So, good health to you, please! The second one is to keep federalism healthy. It is important. I know we loosely use these terms for this House, “Upper House” and “House of Elders”. No, Sir! You come from the great State of Tamil Nadu, I come from the great State of Bengal and there are people from 28 different States who all bring their stories here, who all want to express themselves here. You are the custodian of the States, the Council of States. And I am absolutely sure that you will help us raise our voices in this Council of States. The voice of Bengal, where I come from, where we are owed over Rs.2,00,000 crores or Tamil Nadu. Yesterday, we were talking about MNREGA. We have MNREGA funds and there are so many issues from different States. From Goa in the West to the North East of Manipur across, this is what we look forward to you in the years to come. The third one — and I have only got four — is vital parameters. My wife is a doctor, not me. But when you say “120/80”, you know that the blood pressure is good. So, how do you judge a healthy parliamentary democracy here? I cannot give you many, many different parameters and readings. Let me give you just three or four readings to judge how the parameters are in the Rajya Sabha. When we started in 1952, the Sessions were for 52 days. Then, in the 60s and 70s, each Session came down to about 30 days. Since 2014 to 2019, the number came down and now it is below 20 days. This Session is of 15 days. We urge you that this reading has to improve. The third one – the second parameter – I have a reading on discussions, discussions on various issues allowed by the Chair. I have the reading from 2009 to 2016 — 110 discussions were allowed for discussion here; 110 discussions were accepted and then discussed. In the last eight years, from 110 in Rajya Sabha, it is down to 36 discussions. This is a disturbing number. And I can give you more parameters; like, scrutiny of Bills at one time was that eight Bills would get scrutinized by a Select Committee or a Standing Committee. Now, if you look at the reading, it is not eight or six or five, it is 1.3. One Bill gets scrutinized out of ten Bills. So, I urge you and I can lay on the table all these statistics. The last one, for a healthy parliamentary democracy, which we are absolutely sure with you, as the custodian, will look after… Sir, so, where was I? I was on the point of health and happiness. That is the story. Health and happiness for you and your family; health and happiness for federalism; health and happiness for a parliamentary democracy; and the fourth and the last one is what must remain healthy is our electoral process. And, here, there again, we look at you! A healthy, transparent electoral process must be preceded by no deaths, no inhumanity and no unplanned acts. “Sir, we do not want a procession of death here.” So, for this, Sir, we can have another discussion. I just touched this point. Sir, in conclusion, as I said, I want to wish you good health and happiness, and I will say this in Bengali, *“Be healthy and stay well.” Now, in the true federal spirit of this House, my pronunciation in Tamil may be bad, but you can correct me later, but let me try, okay!… She was looking at me. He will first correct my Tamil; but, I will try. “Be healthy and stay well!” Okay! That is good health and good happiness with my bad Tamil. Sir, you can be rest assured of our full cooperation. It is because we want this House to run and we really believe that the Government is responsible to Parliament. And, Parliament is now presided over by you along with the Lok Sabha Speaker. So, if the Government is responsible to Parliament and Parliament is responsible to the people, it is in our benefit. If Parliament doesn’t run, then, the Government is not responsible to the people. So, I want to leave you here, Sir, with a constructive suggestion. We do not need to wait till tomorrow. We do not need to wait for the next Session. Today, let us make the electoral process happy, healthy and let us start discussion on this at 2.00 p.m. today. Thank you very much. Jai Bangla, Vande Mataram, Jai Hind!
