The Rajya Sabha bid farewell to 72 members retiring between March and July this year, bringing in critical changes in the political arithmetic of the Upper House by the time it meets next for the monsoon session in July.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, quoting phrases used in Bangla and Gujarati for goodbye which translates into “come again”, said he would also say the same to the retiring members — “Come again”.
Mr. Modi also exhorted the retiring members to write about their experiences in Parliament to build an institutional memory. "Sometimes, experiences are more useful than academic knowledge. Experiences help us in solving problems, and the mistakes of the new are minimised," the PM said in the Rajya Sabha.
Whatever the members learnt within the House should be taken beyond the four walls of the Parliament, he said. "The House naturally has a sense of loss when MPs with so much experience leave. Those who do not have experience have far more responsibilities. Let us resolve that whatever we have learned from the retiring MPs should be carried forward for the progress of the nation. We will say to the retiring members — 'come again'," he added
Out of the 72 retiring members, 65 were elected from 19 States and seven are nominated members. The retirees’ list includes 13 members from the Congress, including senior leaders A.K. Antony, P. Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh.
Opening the farewell addresses, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said it was not often that such a valuable pool of members retired in one go. “Twenty-seven Members, accounting for 38% of the retiring members, would have served two terms or more,” he said. He pointed out that Mr. Antony and Ms. Soni have served five terms each, three members have had four terms, six have had three terms, and another 15 members would be retiring after two terms each.
“The 72 retiring members have a total experience of 143 terms in Rajya Sabha. Of them, 17 members were in the Lok Sabha earlier for a total of 38 terms. In effect, the House loses a total parliamentary experience of 181 terms in both the Houses,” Mr. Naidu said.
The retirees also include four Ministers — Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ramachandra Prasad Singh — all of whom are expected to return.
Congress leader Anand Sharma said that a retirement day was a special occasion for reflection. He had entered the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1984, after late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi selected him for the Upper House. Mr. Sharma, who is one of the key members of the ‘G-23’ group that has been asking for the overhaul of the party, also remembered to thank Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Paying tributes to his colleagues from the present and past, Mr. Sharma said that democracy could not flourish with just “one thought and one ideology”. “Political and ideological differences are the strength of democracy. They must never be made personal. There should not be any bitterness injected,“ he said. Stressing the importance of the Opposition, he quoted a Sanskrit couplet, which translates as “even the chariot of god cannot move on one wheel”.
The farewell address, which went on for more than four hours, saw many members recounting their journey to the House from humble backgrounds. It also had its light moments. Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP Dharmapuri Srinivas delivered his maiden speech in the House on the day meant for his retirement address.
