Following the passing of two bills, RTI (Amendment) Bill 2019 and Muslim Women (Protection of rights on marriage) Bill, Rajya Sabha today passed the Unlawful Activities Protection Act (UAPA). The passing of all these laws suggests the incompetence of Congress in the law decision-making process.
Congress party has 47 members in Rajya Sabha, 52 members in Lok Sabha and these numbers are miserly when it comes to affecting the decisions of like-minded parties in the case of important bills. In the Upper House, it can at times influence the decisions but overall these are the times of hardships.
Congress, after the 2014 elections could only capture 44 seats. But despite the low number of seats, it used its hoist in the Rajya Sabha and put on a show of skills to counter the like-minded parties. This time the scenario is a little bit different. Congress is on its own this time around with no hand of support coming from any direction.
After days of complete deadlock between the government and the opposition parties over the controversial bill, Rajya Sabha decided to pass the UAPA bill 2019. Out of the total votes cast, 147 MPs voted in the favor of the changes in the anti-terror act while 42 voted against it. Rajya Sabha even rejected a proposal of the opposition parties to send the bill to a select committee of the parliament for further scrutiny when it was found that 104 members were in the negative and only 85 were in the affirmative.
Home Minister Amit Shah won the logic war with Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh Chauhan in the Rajya Sabha which paved the way for the bill to be passed in the Upper House. This section between these two leaders was described as the highlight of the day.
