On Rajya Sabha to be a Chamber to protect States' rights

The essence of federalism lies in maintaining a proper balance of power in governance and in this respect the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) occupies a significant role. There is no doubt that Rajya Sabha is representative of States of the Union and is supposed to protect States' rights in Central policy making. The Commission is of the considered view that factors inhibiting the composition and functioning of the Second Chamber as a representative forum of States should be removed or modified even if it requires amendment of the Constitutional provisions. This is felt more important now when centralization tendencies are getting stronger and fragmentation of the polity is becoming intense.

Whenever Central policies are formulated in relation to one or more States, it is only proper that Committees of Rajya Sabha involving representatives of concerned States are allowed to discuss and come up with alternate courses of action acceptable to the States and the Union. For example, compensating the mineral rich States or the Hill States can well be negotiated in the Rajya Sabha Committee. Similarly, States adversely affected by the Centre entering into treaties or agreements with other countries can get appropriate remedies if the forum of the Rajya Sabha is utilized for the purpose. In fact, Rajya Sabha offers immense potential to negotiate acceptable solutions to the frictional points which emerge between Centre and States in fiscal, legislative and administrative relations.