While the nation celebrated and jubilated on the 15th Coronation Day of His Majesty the King on November 1, the Prime Minister (PM) Dasho Dr. Lotay Tshering delivered an emotional outgoing speech and drew the curtains for the last time on the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) government whose tenure came to an eclipse after five years in office.
“Just like any doors are meant to be closed after opening, my term has also ended and it is now time to hand over the keys and bid a final goodbye,” the PM said, drawing tears from some of those present in the hallowed and sublime hall of the Cabinet Secretariat in Tashichhodzong.
The PM said that though a bit apprehensive and inexperienced during the initial days when he came to power in 2018, his government took to task immediately under the guidance and foresight of His Majesty the King. “There was no looking back since then,” he reiterated to those who were present in the room to witness the signing of the “relinquishing order.”
Over the last five years, the DNT Cabinet convened a total of 163 meetings in person and over virtual platforms especially during the pandemic. Around eighty executive orders and eighteen policies emerged from these meetings.
“In the last five years, I have gained enough knowledge which won’t be possible had I been serving in the hospital as a Doctor,” the PM reiterated, congratulating everyone involved in the journey, while also offering commiserations to those who have been affected by certain government policies. “To those I hurt, I seek your pardon, because by doing so only were we able to move together as a nation during critical periods like the pandemic,” he exonerated with a winker of satisfaction exuberating from the likes of a satisfied politician.
Acknowledging the Bhutanese people, the PM said that everyone has been a part of this wonderful journey of his, spanning across the moment he was lost finding the way to the Prime Minister’s Office inside the premises of the Parliamentary House, to the time when he is exiting the same office after an illustrious five years.
“As much as it was an exciting episode entailing a detailed anatomy of everything about our precious country, it was also a physiological insight. I exit as a better person today. In scanning, treating and nurturing the health of our country, I have always looked towards His Majesty, to make every hour count,” the PM later penned his memoirs on Facebook, flaunting a bit of The Doctor in him.
All the while, The Dasho in him reverberated, “Every now and then, I would ask myself if I was doing justice to the chair I sit on. It is a place that requires paramount resilience and magnanimous judgment. And I am grateful for all the blessings and guidance my colleagues in the government, and I received.”
In order to return the gesture of love, appreciation and gesture he received from the Bhutanese people during his term, the PM said that he has so much more to do. “Which is why this is not an end but the beginning, the start of a story filled with realization of dreams, of reaping the fruits of peace and prosperity of Bhutan,” he reconnected as he pulled the strings on an illustrious stint as the third democratically elected Prime Minister of Bhutan, having been conferred the red scarf by His Majesty the King during the tenure.
Tashi Namgyal from Thimphu
