Oath-taking in LS turns into sloganeering contest

New Delhi: Amidst heavy sloganeering between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamul Congress (TMC) several new members took oath in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. These included the only Congress member elected from Uttar Pradesh, Sonia Gandhi, who received a huge applause from Opposition and treasury benches as she took oath.

With BJP members shouting slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and Trinamul members retaliating in equal measure shouting “Jai Hind,” “Jai Durga” and “Jai Bangla”, Ms Sonia Gandhi took oath in Hindi while her son Rahul Gandhi filmed it from his mobile phone. Later Mr Rahul Gandhi was seen shouting “Jai Hind” in response to BJP’s “Bharat Mata ki Jai” several times during the wave of sloganeering despite repeated requests from the chair to avoid that.

As Mrs Sonia walked towards the pro-tem speaker Mr Virender Singh to greet him, some BJP members sarcastically remarked, “Thanks for taking the oath in Hindi.” Without responding, Ms Gandhi returned to her seat where she was greeted warmly by her party members, and other Opposition leaders.

Apart from Ms Sonia Gandhi other members of Gandhi family — Varun Feroz Gandhi and his mother Maneka Gandhi — also took oath. Unlike several other members who shouted some or the other slogan, depending on their party line, none of the Gandhis shouted any slogan at the end of their oath. Ms Sonia Gandhi was seen thumping the table when her nephew Mr Varun Gandhi walked up to take oath and both Ms Sonia Gandhi and her sister-in-law Ms Maneka Gandhi greeted each other after the latter was administered oath.

Despite warning from chair, majority of the BJP members ended their oaths with “Vande Mataram” and “Jai Shri Ram” slogans triggering response from their party colleagues. In fact, at one point of time Congress president Rahul Gandhi took a dig at BJP member Arun Kumar Sagar saying “one more time” after Mr Sagar chanted ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ twice following his oath.

BSP member Shyam Singh Yadav concluded his oath with ‘Jai Bheem, Jai Bharat and Jai Samajwad’ and Trinamul’s Aprupa Poddar chanted “Mamta Banerjee zindabad, Jai Hind, Jai Bangla” after taking oath in Hindi. TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee recited ‘Durga Path’ after his oath while his party colleague Abu Taher Khan began his oath with ‘Bismillah, ar-Rahman, ar Rahim’ and ended with Allahu Akbar.