Rajya Sabha on Thursday bid farewell to 72 MPs, who are retiring in the next three months, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging them to share the experience gained within the four walls of the Upper House in all four directions so that the country benefits and to inspire coming generations.
At a sitting that done away with the customary Zero Hour and Question Hour, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge among others showered praise on the retiring MPs, who cumulatively have an experience of 181 terms in Parliament -- 143 terms in the Rajya Sabha and 38 in the Lok Sabha.
Sixty-five of the retiring MPs represent 19 states while seven are nominated members. The retiring members 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, and MC Mary Kom among others.
Emphasising that experience has more power than knowledge, Modi said, "we may be moving out of these four walls, but we should take this experience from here to all four directions in the best interests of the country."
Wishing them to "come again", Modi also urged them to "put in words the memories gained here to help serve as a reference point for coming generations...As the Chairman said, some retiring members have long experience... That means the repository of experience lies with these members."
"When experienced people retire, a lot would be said about them in the House but the responsibility of those remaining increases. The tales of experience left behind by those retiring, remaining members have to take that forward," he said.
Naidu expressed concern over the House having lost over 35 per cent of the functional time due to disruptions since 2017 and said that legislators across the country should be driven by passion, performance and procedural integrity and desist from disrupting law-making bodies.
Describing the retiring MPs as a "vast pool of considerable legislative experience, domain knowledge, parliamentary skills and proven performance in the House", he said 27 MPs have the experience of serving two or more terms in Rajya Sabha. He said MPs like Antony and Soni were five-term MPs while Sharma, Patel, and Prabhu are four-time MPs. Swamy, Acharya, Naresh Gujral, and Sanjay Raut are three-term MPs.
S R Balasubramoniyan, AIADMK's 84-year-old retiring MP, came in for special praise from Naidu who said the Tamil Nadu lawmaker has not missed a single sitting during the 12 sessions from the 244th session in 2017 to the Winter Session last year demonstrating that passion and sincerity defy the age. He has attended 234 sittings during this period.
Kharge referred to remarks of Jawaharlal Nehru and A B Vajpayee to highlight the role of Rajya Sabha and said there should not be hasty legislation and that efforts should be taken to ensure that everyone is taken along.
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