Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, on Thursday were seen having an exchange of laughter ahead of the farewell ceremony of 72 retiring MPs of the Upper House. Prime Minister Modi this morning was walking into the area for a group photo with the Rajya Sabha members retiring in the next couple of months. He was seen greeting all the leaders on his way including DMK MP Tiruchi Siva and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar amongst others. As the Prime Minister came to the centre of the photo opportunity area, he was seen shaking hands with the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.
The two were seen chatting for quite some time and exchanged laughter. While the Prime Minister was seen referring to Kharge and asking them to slow down and allow the House to function, Kharge, in turn, told the Prime Minister that his party’s job is to ask questions and the PM and his government is to answer. The two leaders finally laughed and parted ways.
The Rajya Sabha on Thursday bid farewell to 72 members retiring from March to July this year. The 72 retiring members include A.K. Anthony, Ambika Soni, P. Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, Suresh Prabhu, Praful Patel, Dr Subramanian Swamy, Prasanna Acharya, Sanjay Raut, Naresh Gujral, Satish Chandra Mishra, MC Mary Kom, Swapan Dasgupta, M.J. Akbar, Dr Narendra Jadhav. Sixty-five retiring members represented 19 states, while 7 are nominated members.
The Prime Minister bid