So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen...

The valedictories on the last day of the current Lok Sabha were poignant. Some MPs announced retirement; a few surprised their colleagues by praising the PM

Valedictory speeches — MPs thanking the Speaker at the end of the Lok Sabha’s tenure — are always both poignant and incisive: poignant because members are telling each other ‘so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night’ and incisive because leaders say things that they cannot from any other forum.

This round of valedictories was no different. On the last day of the current Lok Sabha, H D Deve Gowda publicly recounted how he had criticised the Congress Party for elevating as party president a ‘foreign person’ like Sonia Gandhi (she was present in the house) and conceded that this was no longer an issue as he himself had endorsed a demand that she become prime minister of India (Sonia Gandhi, unusually for her, interrupted him to say she never wanted to be one). He said he had spent 29 years in the House and this would be his last speech in the Lok Sabha. His party might be opposing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bitterly in Karnataka but he was effusive in his praise for the Prime Minister.

Ditto Mulayam Singh Yadav, who said he hoped the Prime Minister would win the elections again and return to government (to this, his relative by marriage, Rabri Devi said rather acidly later that Mulayam Singh had become old and no longer had any control on his power of speech). The Prime Minister responded by singling out Mulayam Singh and thanking him for the affection he had shown. And so, goodbyes were said to this Lok Sabha amid high anticipation for the next.

 

The House did not get a chance to bid personal goodbye to MPs who have said they will not contest the Lok Sabha election. As parliamentary affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj (MP, Vidisha) used to be the darling of the Opposition. Then Speaker, CPI (M) leader Somnath Chatterjee paid her fulsome compliments, going so far as to call her the best parliamentary affairs minister India has ever had, much to the irritation of his party. After she was made Minister for External Affairs, Mulayam Singh defended her when she was charged with having lobbied with the UK government in favour of disgraced businessman Lalit Modi. It is a fact that in this government she has been sidelined in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) with the Prime Minister’s Office dealing directly with the Foreign Secretary on several issues.

Uma Bharti (MP, Jhansi) has said she is not retiring from politics but will not contest the Lok Sabha election for health reasons. The fact that the biggest chunk of her portfolio — Ganga rejuvenation — was taken away from her in the course of Narendra Modi’s last reshuffle might have been a factor in her decision. She did not attend the swearing in ceremony of the new ministers and is now dropping out of the elections altogether. Outspoken and blunt, Bharti’s comments about her colleagues during a meeting of the BJP’s national executive in 2006 saw many red faces in the party. Some of them have not forgiven her for her outburst to this day.
 

Major General B C Khanduri (MP, Garhwal), the roads man in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet, will not return to the Lok Sabha either. He was removed without ceremony from his position as chairman of the Standing Committee on Defence three months before his term was to end. Maybe it is that humiliation or just a feeling that it is now time to hang up his boots. Bhagat Singh Koshyari, (Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar) will not contest the elections. Nor will Hukumdev Narayan Yadav (Madhubani), who has said he would prefer to do party work. He has turned 80.

But there are some who are not Lok Sabha MPs but have said they will fight the election if forced to do so by their party. There is the rather confusing matter of Sharad Pawar, currently a Rajya Sabha MP who represented Madha from Maharashtra in the previous Lok Sabha. His nephew and MLA, Ajit Pawar, had recently chided party workers in Pune for demanding that Sharadrao contest the Lok Sabha election. “He (Sharad Pawar) has said himself that he does not want to contest so please don’t raise slogans,” Ajit Pawar tersely told party workers. But the latest from Sharad Pawar himself is that if his party wants, he is ready to contest the Madha seat. He is also reported to have said that his nephew will not contest.

Either way, a new House will be in place in May — so goodbye, and welcome.