Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu gave farewell party to 72 MPs who retired from Rajya Sabha. These MPs thoroughly enjoyed the party. While some MPs sang the song, some made everyone dance to the tune of the guitar. PM Modi was also involved in the party, he also supported the MPs fiercely.
These were present in the party- Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, PM Modi, Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, JP Nadda and many big leaders of the opposition were also involved in this farewell party. Here PM Modi was also seen enjoying the party. Retiring MPs interacted with the PM and posed for photographs with him.
These are being retired- Let us tell you that 72 Rajya Sabha members are going to retire between March and July. Sixty-five of them represent 19 states while seven are nominated members. It also includes 45 members who reached Parliament for the first time. Of the 72, 27 have been members for two terms or more. At the same time, nine women members including boxer MC Mary Kom are also retiring. In this, the four ministers who have completed their tenure are Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ramchandra Prasad Singh.
Many big names included- Among the retiring MPs, AK Antony and Ambika Soni have completed five terms. Anand Sharma, Suresh Prabhu and Praful Patel have completed four terms each. Subramanian Swamy, Jairam Ramesh, Prasanna Acharya, Naresh Gujral, Sardar Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Satish Chandra Mishra have completed three terms each. P. Chidambaram has the longest legislative experience, having completed one term in the Rajya Sabha and seven in the Lok Sabha.
Experiences shared before the party- Many retiring MPs remembered their past. Shared the sour-sweet experience inside the house. Up-Rashtriya Naidu himself also shared a similar anecdote. He said that he and late Congress leader Jaipal Reddy never used to come to the House with a pen. Always asked for others, and forgot to return it. After this, whenever any member saw us coming towards him, he would take out his pen and hide it in the pocket of the pants.
On the other hand, former PM HD Deve Gowda said- “Today we are losing our very close friends… I hope they come back in this house and we will work with them again.” CPI(M)’s Elaram Karim pointed out how important Anand Sharma’s intervention was on constitutional issues, especially at the time of discussion on Kashmir when he pointed to the Instrument of Accession. He said that when we are arguing, we argue vigorously for our voice. Obedience is not the only thing in a democracy.