NEW DELHI: Union minister Piyush Goyal recalled on Thursday that in his childhood, he used to play marbles with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Delivering his speech as a retiring member of the Rajya Sabha, Goyal, who is also the leader of the House, recollected his association with late BJP leaders, including Arun Jaitley, and said the latter used to mentor several young members of Parliament like him.
However, Goyal, who holds multiple portfolios as the minister of commerce and industry, consumer affairs and food and public distribution and textiles, is likely to be re-elected to the Upper House of Parliament.
He also expressed gratitude to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and former president Pranab Mukherjee for motivating him when he was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2010.
Goyal said he expects the country to have a bright future on account of the coordinated efforts under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Retirement certainly is a time of mixed feelings and we will miss the contributions of all our esteemed colleagues who may not come back," Goyal said.
The Rajya Sabha bid farewell on Thursday to 72 retiring members, with the prime minister urging them to take the experience gained in the House across the country in the best interests of people and to inspire the coming generations.
Members cutting across party lines shared memories of their retiring colleagues and hoped that they would return to the House.
While most MPs were emotional, there were some lighter moments as well.
A total of 72 Rajya Sabha MPs, including seven nominated members, are retiring between March and July, which is one-third of the strength of the House.
Among them, some may return to the Rajya Sabha.
The retiring members represent 19 states and some of them have been MPs for five terms.
Those retiring from the Rajya Sabha 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, M C Mary Kom, Swapan Dasgupta and Narendra Jadhav.
In his remarks, Naidu asked the lawmakers to be propelled by "passion, performance and procedural integrity" and desist from disrupting law-making bodies, while upholding the honour and privilege bestowed on them by people.
He called upon them to ensure that the expectations and aspirations of people are incorporated in designing laws and policies.
The chairman also voiced concern over the House having lost over 35 per cent of the functional time due to disruptions since 2017.