Modi leads RS farewell to 72 retiring members
The Rajya Sabha on Thursday bid farewell to 72 lawmakers whose term in the Upper House ended between March and July. In his speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the experience gained by the members within the four walls of the House could now be spread in four different directions of the country to inspire the younger generation.
The PM said academic knowledge can have its limitations, but experience, when combined with knowledge, can be a powerful instrument for problem solving. “Academic knowledge can be put to use in seminars, but what is gained through experience is helpful in finding simple solutions to problems,” he said.
He said when experienced people are not part of the decisionmaking process, there can be some deficiencies in policies for the newer generation, therefore the responsibility on those present also increases.
The PM also urged the retiring members to pen down their experiences so that these could serve as a reference point for the future generations. “We take back more from the house then we gave. We experience India’s diversity in its social structure in this house. Everyone sitting on either side of the aisle has in some way or the other contributed to give direction to this country,” he said.
He urged the lawmakers to make use of the ongoing celebrations of India’s 75th year of independence and said they now had a much larger stage to contribute to. He also said that he would try to meet all the retiring members individually and tell them about their strengths that he noticed in Parliament.
Rajya Sabha chairperson, M Venkaiah Naidu informed the house that retiring members from 19 states had a total parliamentary experience of 181 terms, including 38 in the Lok Sabha. He referred to the members as a “vast pool of considerable legislated experience, domain knowledge, parliamentary skills and proven performance in the house”. Naidu said it was not very often that such a pool of performers retired in one go.
Naidu also said 27 members had the experience of serving two or more terms in the Rajya Sabha. Among those whose terms are ending include four Union ministers — Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ramchandra Prasad Singh. Naidu also informed the house that 84-year-old SR Balasubramoniyan is the only member who attended all the 234 sittings of the House during the 12 sessions from 2017 till the last winter session.