Political compulsions may have forced Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to retract his statement but what he said at the “Regional consultation for electoral reforms” in Bhopal last Sunday is serious enough to take note of. He said the Rajya Sabha should be abolished since huge sums of money were being spent to become members, making the upper house a “market”. “There is open selling of tickets. It is a shame”, he said.

He was not divulging any secret. There have been several such instances in the recent past. KD Singh, a Chandigarh-based industrialist, won a seat to the upper house from Jharkhand in June this year with the support of JMM, RJD and All Jharkhand Students Union.  How he managed that is common knowledge.

But that is not the only reason why a rethink is needed. There are other instances that make mockery of the very purpose for which the constitution mandated the upper house. The BJP had triggered a revolt in its rank in Rajasthan last June by imposing noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani on them.  Central leadership had to rush and herd together all the state legislators to a resort until the voting for the upper house was over to ensure that the official candidate won. It wasn’t money but personal interest of a powerful leader that prompted the choice of the candidate.

The Rajya Sabha members are supposed to represent the states in the parliament and give a fillip to the legislative business by virtue of their expertise in various fields or by representing various communities or social segments requiring special attention. But the choice of Rajya Sabha candidates in recent years, irrespective of party affiliation, makes it abundantly clear that the purpose is something quite different.

Should we not then do away with the Rajya Sabha then, as Chouhan was pleading for?