Amid slogans reflecting their political allegiance or ideology, Tuesday’s oath-taking of Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh turned into a slugfest between the Treasury and the Opposition benches.
It started with Congress MP from Saharanpur, Imran Masood, taking his oath holding a copy of the Constitution and ending it by chanting “Jai Hind, Jai Bheem”.
The slogan was later repeated by many Samajwadi Party MPs who also chanted “Samajwad Zindabad” and “PDA Zindabad”.
When the BJP MP from Meerut, Arun Govil, was called to take oath, the Treasury benches broke into chants of “Jai Shri Ram”.
Holding a copy of the Constitution with Ambedkar’s picture on the cover, he ended his oath with chants of “Namo Buddhaya, Jai Bheem, Jai Bharat, Jai Samvidhan, Jai Mandal …Bharatiya Loktantra Zindabad”.
Religious slogans were countered with waving of the Constitution. Tributes to Hindutva icons were responded to with arguments on Socialism. Amid slogans reflecting their political allegiance or ideology, Tuesday’s oath-taking of Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh turned into a slugfest between the Treasury and the Opposition benches.
It started with Congress MP from Saharanpur, Imran Masood, taking his oath holding a copy of the Constitution and ending it by chanting “Jai Hind, Jai Bheem”. The slogan was later repeated by many Samajwadi Party MPs who also chanted “Samajwad Zindabad” and “PDA Zindabad”.
An acronym coined by the SP, PDA stands for “pichhde” (backward classes), Dalit and “alpsankhyak” (minorities). In a Lok Sabha where the Mayawati-led BSP has no presence this time, the chant underlined the SP’s recognition of the support it got from Dalits as the INDIA bloc won 43 seats against the NDA’s 36.
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For a change, the Opposition benches appeared to have more heft and more noise than the Treasury when the UP MPs were taking oath. This was also because West Bengal MPs too were sitting in the House as they had to take oath after UP members.
When the BJP MP from Meerut, Arun Govil, was called to take oath, the Treasury benches broke into chants of “Jai Shri Ram”. Govil, who took his oath in Sanskrit, himself ended his oath with the slogan.
To this, the Opposition benches responded by shouting “Jai Awadhesh”. It was a reference to SP MP Awadhesh Prasad who shot to political prominence following his victory from the Faizabad seat, which includes Ayodhya, where PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram temple in January. Prasad, who was seated in the front row with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, stood up with folded hands to greet the recognition.
There was massive cheer from the Opposition when Rae Bareli MP Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav were called to take oath. While Gandhi held a red copy of the Constitution, Yadav held a blue one. SP’s Etawah MP Jitendra Dohare borrowed both copies from the two leaders when it was his time to take oath.
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As Gandhi went on the podium to take oath, Congress MPs broke into loud slogans of “Bharat Jodo, Bharat Jodo”. Curiously, when Gandhi spoke, the Treasury benches did not interrupt him even once despite his waving the Constitution at them and ending the oath with “Jai Samvidhan”.
In contrast, when Modi took oath on Monday, the Opposition shouted slogans of “Save the Constitution”.
Loud cheers were also heard when Amethi MP K L Sharma, who defeated former Union Minister Smriti Irani, came to take oath. Gandhi particularly looked very pleased to see him and thumped the desk enthusiastically.
First-time MP and Dalit youth leader Chandrashekhar Azad too did not shy away from some political messaging. In a House full of pristine white kurta-pajamas, Azad came dressed in a blue bandhgala suit, the kind that B R Ambedkar has been associated with. Holding a copy of the Constitution with Ambedkar’s picture on the cover, he ended his oath with chants of “Namo Buddhaya, Jai Bheem, Jai Bharat, Jai Samvidhan, Jai Mandal …Bharatiya Loktantra Zindabad”.
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At least two BJP MPs tried to invoke Hindutva while taking oath. BJP MP from Bareilly, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar, ended his oath with “Jai Hindu Rashtra”, triggering strong protests from the Opposition, which said it was against the Constitution to do so. The chair, Faggan Singh Kulaste, said he would look into the matter.
Ghaziabad MP Atul Garg was hooted at when he ended his oath with an ode to Hindutva icons such as Syama Prasad Mookerji, Deen Dayal Updhyaya and chanted “Atal Bihari Vajpayee Zindabad, Narendra Modi Zindabad”. As he was leaving, amid a chorus of protest, he returned to add: “Dr Hedgewar Zindabad”.
When two SP MPs, from Rampur and Sambhal, read out their oath in chaste Urdu and one of them ended it with “Inquilab Zindabad”, BJP ally Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel urged the chair to stop such sloganeering during oath-taking. At this, SP’s Dharmendra Yadav said the treasury had started it all and must “now listen”.
