Debates were becoming rare and disruptions more frequent, four time Rajya Sabha MP Karan Singh, rued even as he bade farewell to the upper house along with two other Congress MPs Janaradhan Diwedi and Parvez Hashmi.

In a speech peppered with Sanskrit shlokas and Urdu verses, Mr. Singh said, “Parliament has evolved over these 50 years but not all the changes have been positive I must say. I used to remember when I went to the Lok Sabha for the first time. There were brilliant debates by Hiren Mukherjee, Madhu Limaye, Nath Pai, Atalji and here Bhupesh Gupta. Those were the debates now seem to me becoming rare, and disruptions are becoming more frequent.”

He called upon the members to introspect. He said he had come to Delhi as an idealistic young man of 36 and was retiring as an ‘idealistic old man’’. “I have implicit faith that the county will overcome all its challenges as long as we remain faithful to our Constitution and civilisational values,” Mr Singh said.

Speakers from both sides showered praise on them for their contributions. All the three retiring MPs were elected from Delhi. The farewell was held today, the last day of the Winter Session. Their actual retirement date of January 27 would fall in the inter-session period.

Ghulam Nabi’s praise

Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said his veteran party colleague Karan Singh had become the head of Jammu and Kashmir at the age of 18 and was probably world’s youngest person to hold such a post.

Mr. Dwivedi, who completed three terms as the Rajya Sabha MP, said generally farewell became like an “obituary reference” but today [Friday] was different.

Mr. Hashmi was not present in the house.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Special Correspondent / New Delhi – January 05th, 2018