Mr. Chairman, Sir.

I must begin by expressing my very sincere thanks to you and the Deputy Chairman for the grace and wisdom with which you conducted the proceedings of this House. We are all grateful to you, Sir, for the sense of fairness and fair play with which you deal with each Member of this august House.

Sir, this has been a very important Session of Parliament. Not only did we discuss the Union and Railway Budgets, but we passed over a dozen other bills including the Patents (Amendment) Bill, The Right to Information Bill, the Prevention of Money-Laundering (Amendment) Bill, the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Bill and the Special Economic Zones Bill. Nine important Bills were also introduced in the House including the Manipur University Bill and the Disaster Management Bill.

Sir, we also found time for short duration discussions on many matters of national importance such as instances of suicide by farmers, the situation arising out of the Tsunami disaster last December and the measures taken to deal with it, the reform of our criminal justice system and the work of the newly reconstituted North-East Council. The House also heard a wide range of important policy statements made and I had the privilege of placing before the House a comprehensive statement on my meetings with important foreign dignitaries, particularly the Prime Minister of China and the President of Pakistan.

Sir, by any standards of parliamentary work this is commendable business. I sincerely wish I could have stopped here after recording my appreciation of the proceedings However, Mr Chairman Sir, once again we end the Session with a sense of regret and concern. You have expressed your sentiments and I wish to associate myself fully with these sentiments. At the end of the last Session I had expressed my sadness at the manner in which the proceedings of the House could not take place.

This time, Mr Chairman Sir, once again I stand before you with a profound sense of sadness. I believe I would not be expressing the mood of the Nation if I did not express my regret at the boycott of the proceedings of the House by many members in the Opposition.

Sir, the people of India have reposed their faith and trust in us and have sent us here to project and protect their interests, to canvass and convey their concerns, to influence and shape Government policy for the benefit of our people. We are here, Mr Chairman Sir, to voice the views of the people, and not to ignore them by staying away and giving no expression to the concerns of our people.

Mr Chairman Sir, I wish to reiterate that the House is the proper forum to debate and discuss any subjects. Our Government stands ready to discuss on the floor of the House all issues which any member may wish to raise.

I hope that next Session will be conducted with the full participation of the Opposition and we are able to make better use of our time, serving the interests of our people. There is an obligation on both the Government and the Opposition to play their respective roles within this august House so that the system of checks and balances envisioned by our founding fathers works effectively and efficiently for the common benefit of our country. I therefore reiterate my appeal to the Members of the Opposition to return to Parliament so that we can resume the normal tenor of Parliamentary work, in accordance with the aspirations of the people we represent.

Mr Chairman Sir, with these words I once again thank you for your guidance. I also place on record our thanks to the Hon. Deputy Chairman, the Hon. Leader of the Opposition, even though he is absent the Secretary-General and his staff for all their good work.

Thank you, Sir.