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Opposition parties stole the show on day 1 of 18th Lok Sabha. Almost all members of INDIA bloc entered the House holding copies of the Constitution. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led the MPs in waving the Constitution when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was being sworn in. The scene was repeated when Home Minister Amit Shah took the oath.
- Also read:PM Modi pledges threefold effort and results in third term; appeals for responsible Opposition
Before them, senior members Radha Mohan Singh and Faggan Singh Kulaste (both from the BJP), who are to assist the pro-tem speaker in administering the oath to the newly-elected MPs, were sworn in as members of the new House. They will help pro-tem speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab run the House when the members take the oath on Monday and Tuesday.
K Suresh (Congress), T R Baalu (DMK) and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC), who were called to take oath as they were also appointed as panel of chairpersons like Singh and Kulaste, did not turn up.
After the oath of the members of the Union Council of Ministers who won the Lok Sabha election, newly-elected members from various States were sworn in, starting from Bishnu Pada Ray, who represents Andaman & Nicobar Islands constituency.
Linguistic diversity
The Lower House witnessed a display of linguistic diversity on Monday, with the newly-elected MPs taking their oaths in English and Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Dogri, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati and Odia. Modi took his oath in Hindi amid slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” from the treasury benches.
Along with him, Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Women and Child Development Minister Annapurna Devi, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Urban Development Minister ML Khattar were among those who took oath in Hindi.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the MP from Odisha’s Sambalpur, took oath in Odia. As Pradhan proceeded to take his oath, members of the Opposition raised “NEET, NEET” slogan, amid a controversy over alleged irregularities in competitive exams, including the medical entrance exam National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG).
Suresh Gopi, the first BJP MP to be elected from Kerala, also took oath as a member of the 18th Lok Sabha. Before taking his oath in Malayalam, the actor-politician invoked the gods, saying “Krishna, Guruvayurappa”.
Interestingly, none of the Lok Sabha members, who are part of the Council of Ministers took oath in English.
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