17The dominance of saffron, Sanskrit, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and an MP rounding up her oath with a chant from Durga Saptashati was as conspicuous as the absence of Congress President Rahul Gandhi in the first half of the first day of the 17 Lok Sabha .

Rahul Gandhi finally made it to the House and took oath but not before many in the treasury benches demanded to know “where is he”. Gandhi tweeted his arrival before he actually walked in: “My 4consecutive term as Member of the Lok Sabha begins today. Representing Wayanad, Kerala, I begin my new innings in Parliament by taking my oath this afternoon, affirming that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India.”

The depleted strength in the Opposition benches was resurrected briefly when accused in the Malegaon blast case and now BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur sufficed the name of her spiritual guru with hers while taking oath.

She mentioned Swami Purna Chetnanand Avdheshanand Giri as a suffix to her name while taking oath, drawing sharp reactions from the Opposition while the treasury bench strongly supported.

The pro tem Speaker finally ruled that only the name written in her election certificate issued by the returning officer would go on record.

Thakur took the oath in Sanskrit and ended it with a loud slogan ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

Several MPs, including Meenakshi Lekhi, Harsh Vardhan, Sripad Naik, Ashwini Chaubey, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, took oath in Sanskrit.

BJP MP from Sirsa, Haryana, Sunita Duggal, rounded up her oath with a chant from Durga Saptashati.

Modi chant

The ceremonial silence observed by the new members as soon as the House assembled this morning was broken by loud chants of “Modi Modi” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” when the Secretary General invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take oath. The panel of presiding officers — Kodikunnil Suresh, Bribhushan Saran Singh and B Mehtab — was sworn in immediately afterwards. Kodikunnil Suresh is reported to be a strong contender to lead the Congress in the Lok Sabha.

While Rahul Gandhi was not in the House in the morning, former Congress President Sonia Gandhi was seated in the front row.

Smriti Irani’s entry

Sonia duly greeted Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani who got the loudest and the longest applause, having defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

As soon as Smriti Irani’s name was called for oath-taking, BJP members including the PM, Home Minister Amit Shah other Union Ministers and MPs enthusiastically thumped their desks.

While the Prime Minister and most of Union Ministers took oath in Hindi, DV Sadananda Gowda and Prahlad Joshi took oath in Kannada, Harsimrat Kaur Badal took oath in Punjabi. Union Ministers Arvind Ganpat Sawant, Raosaheb Patil Danbe took oath in Marathi, Jitendra Singh in Dogri, Babul Supriyo in English, Rameshwar Teli in Assamese and Debashree Choudhury in Bangla.

BJD leader Mehtab took oath in Odiya.

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