Budget session: Rajya Sabha bids farewell to 72 retiring MPs

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday bid farewell to its 72 retiring members with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging them to take the experience gained in the House to across India in the best interests of the people and help inspire the coming generations.

Members cutting across party lines shared fond memories of their retiring colleagues and hoped they return to the House. While most MPs were emotional, there were some lighter moments as well.

A total of 72 Rajya Sabha MPs, including seven nominated members, are retiring between March and July this year, which is one-third of the strength of the House. Among them, some may return to the Rajya Sabha.

The retiring members represent 19 states and some of them have experience of five terms.

Those retiring from the Rajya Sabha include A K Antony, Ambika Soni, P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, Suresh Prabhu, Praful Patel, Subramanian Swamy, Prasanna Acharya, Sanjay Raut, Naresh Gujral, Satish Chandra Mishra, M C Mary Kom, Swapan Dasgupta and Narendra Jadhav.

In his remarks, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked lawmakers to be propelled by "passion, performance and procedural integrity" and desist from disrupting law-making bodies while upholding the honour and privilege bestowed on them by the people.

He called upon them to ensure the expectations and aspirations of people are incorporated in the designing laws and policies.

The Rajya Sabha chairman also voiced concern over the House having lost over 35 per cent of the functional time due to disruptions since 2017.

In his speech, the prime minister emphasised that experience has more power than knowledge and the MPs should take it forward in the service of the nation.

"We may be moving out of these four walls (of this House) but we should take this experience from here to all the four directions in the best interests of the country," Modi said.

Giving his best wishes to those retiring, he told them to "come again" to the House. He also told them to pen down their experiences and contributions.

"I would want you to put in words the memories gained here to help serve as a reference point for coming generations," the prime minister said.

The House and the nation feel the loss and some sort of shortcomings in decision-making for the coming generations When experienced colleagues retire, he said.

Modi also noted, "When experienced people retire, a lot would be said about them in the House but the responsibility of those remaining increases. The members who remain have to take that forward the tales of experience left behind by those retiring."

Leader of Opposition and senior Congress MP Mallikarjuna Kharge said that after listening to the Prime Minister and other members "I realised how important the Rajya Sabha is."

"The Upper House is a chamber of ideas and a house of intellectuals from varied fields. There are ex-chief ministers, ex-prime ministers and many ministers are part of this House. We have gained from their experience".

Kharge emphasised that there can be differences of opinion but it is important that everyone works together.

As this is a permanent House, the journey continues, old members will retire and new ones will come, the Congress leader said.

"The numbers in the Opposition benches may be less, but they have strength in their argument. The problem is that arguments are not considered but voices are counted. This is what Atal Ji had said, not me," he recalled.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh expressed confidence that the retiring members, through their pubic engagement, would continue to work to increase the confidence of citizens and students in politics and parliamentary democracy.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, who too is retiring, said that he never trooped in the Well of the House during his entire tenure.

Sharma also said that he never used impolite words in his speeches and no word of his was ever expunged from the records of the House.

Derek O'Brien of the Trinamool Congress said that he would tell his grandchildren that when he was in Parliament, there were two former prime ministers -- Manmohan Singh and H D Devagowda -- and the prime minister was Narendra Modi.

DMK leader Tiruchi Siva mentioned that farewell moments are "always emotional and painful".

"I would only like to say one thing to my colleagues who are retiring... this is not the end of the road, only a bend. They are only retiring from this August House, but their carrier will see their contribution in various other spheres," he said.

Recollecting that Congress' Anand Sharma often used to borrow a pen from him, Siva said, "Yesterday, he told me that he won't be asking for a pen from tomorrow."

To this, House Chairman Naidu talked about his earlier days when he and former Union Minister Jaipal Reddy too often used to borrow pens from fellow lawmakers.

"Later, I found that whenever both of us were moving towards them, many of the members would hide their pens," Naidu said amusingly.

Prasanna Acharya of the BJD, a three-time Lok Sabha MP and an MLA thrice, said before entering the Rajya Sabha he was under impression that he had a lot of experience, but was wrong.

"When I entered this House, I felt I was just a pigmy" as there were great intellectuals and stalwarts in the Rajya Sabha, Acharya said.