“Rajya Sabha is a reflection of our diversity”: PM Modi at Rajya Sabha’s 250th session

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
Monday said Rajya Sabha is the soul of India’s federal structure. The prime
minister was addressing the upper House of Parliament on its 250th session.

PM Modi said Rajya Sabha has both created and witnessed history. “Rajya Sabha is a reflection of our diversity, it gives an opportunity to people who are not in electoral politics to contribute to the country’s development,” he said.

Modi had said that the House has
published many important legislations and it has been a “journey of ideas”.
“Who can forget that it was through the Rajya Sabha that a stalwart like Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar could contribute even more to national progress,” PM Modi
said.

Quoting former prime minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, Modi said, “In 2003, Atal Ji had said that the Rajya Sabha may
be the second house but no one should think of it as a secondary house. Today,
I echo the sentiments of Atal Ji and add that the Rajya Sabha must be a vibrant
supportive house for national progress.”

To mark the landmark 250th
session, the upper House held a discussion on the ‘Role of Rajya Sabha in
Indian Polity: Need for Reform’ on Monday.

According to a Rajya Sabha
Secretariat statement, a coin, a postal stamp and two publications, one of
which would describe the house journey since 1952, will also be released to
mark the occasion.