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