New Delhi: Members of the newly constituted sixteenth Lok Sabha on Thursday came together to take oath as members of the Lower House. An atmosphere of festivity and camaraderie was witnessed in the House as members cheered even their political opponents while taking oath.
The country’s diversity was in full display as many members appeared in their traditional attires and headgears and also took oath in their mother tongues ranging from Sanskrit, Maithili, Konkani, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi and English.
Members of Shiv Sena hailed Chattrapati Shivaji, late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Dr B.R. Ambedkar ahead of taking oath and ended it with “Jai Maharashtra.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dressed in a white kurta was the first to take oath, followed by BJP patriarch L.K. Advani and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Mr Modi took oath in Hindi in the name of God. Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharati and Harsh Vardhan took oath in Sanskrit while Sarbananda Sonowa took it in Assamese. Meenakshi Lekhi and Parvesh Saheb Singh Verma also took oath in Sanskrit.
Devjibhai Fatehpura MP from Surendranagar, Gujarat, dressed in traditional Gujarati dress, performed what looked like ‘garbha’ before entering the Parliament.
BJP MP Hema Malini arrives at the Parliament on Thursday — PTI
