407 take oath as 13th LS opens
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 20 — It was the first day of the 13th Lok Sabha and a total of 407 of the 537 newly-elected members of the House took oath starting with the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Mr Vajpayee, who was sworn-in as the Prime Minister of the National Democratic Alliance coalition government on October 13, took the oath in Hindi and was followed by the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who also took the oath in Hindi.

Dressed in his traditional dhoti-kurta and Nehru jacket, Mr Vajpayee greeted the members of the House, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and other leaders were occupying the front rows ahead of the scheduled start of the first session of the House this morning.

The day was also one of similarity and contrasts with daughters-in-law of the Nehru-Gandhi family, entering the House as did a brother-sister duo and sons of political leaders.

The oath or affirmation was administered by the Pro-Tem Speaker, Mr Indrajit Gupta, of the CPI who also appointed a panel of Chairmen to conduct the proceedings of the House till the new Speaker is elected on October 22.

The panel consisted of Mr Madhavrao Scindia and Mr P.M. Sayeed of the Congress and Mr Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI-M. Earlier, Mr Gupta was sworn-in by the President Mr K.R. Narayanan, at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Apart from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, the members of the Union Council of Ministers also took oath. Thereafter, the members were called in alphabetical order of the states/UTs, they represented.

The day’s proceedings began with a packed House which was also awash with the colourful headgear donned by many a member indicating the state they hailed from.

However, it was Mrs Sonia Gandhi who was the cynosure of all eyes as she stepped into the House accompanied by Mr Kamal Nath and Mr Paban Singh Ghatowar, who were seen explaining to her the seating arrangement and other details.

Just as Mrs Sonia Gandhi took oath, her family including son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Vadra and son-in-law Robert Vadra were seated in the visitors gallery.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi achieved the unique distinction of a first-time MP and a woman to become the Leader of the Opposition, a position that even her famous mother-in-law did not hold.

Although Mrs Indira Gandhi was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977-78 from Chikmagalur she continued to be the Chairperson of the Congress Party in Parliament and let Mr C.M. Stephan continue as the Leader of the Opposition, a post he was appointed when she lost the election from Rae Bareli after the Emergency.

Another noticeable feature was the apparent frostiness in the relations between Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Mrs Maneka Gandhi, a Minister in the Vajpayee Council of Ministers.

After taking oath, Mrs Maneka Gandhi did not even afford a glance at her sister-in-law as she walked past the Opposition benches. She, however, did greet some others seated in the front rows on the side.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi spent nearly 90 minutes in the House before leaving the House. Later, in an informal chat with correspondents she described her first day in the Lok Sabha as ‘comfortable’.

In contrast to the relations between the two daughters-in-law of the Nehru-Gandhi family, the relations between Mr Madhavrao Scindia and her sister Mrs Vasundhara Raje, also a Minister at the Centre, was different. After taking oath Mrs Raje made it a point to seek blessing from her brother, who was on the other side of the political divide.

The day also saw sons of two former Union Ministers, both of whom held the charge of Steel Ministry, take their positions in the House again. The Power Minister, Mr P.R. Kumaramangalam, son of late Mohan Kumaramangalam and Minister of Mines, Mr Naveen Patnaik, son of late Biju Patnaik.

As against this, Mr Ajay Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal and Mr Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, were among the newer generation who also were sons of Chief Ministers.

Mr Ajay Chautala being the son of Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala while the Minister of State for Industry, Mr Omar Abdullah, the son of J and K Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah.

A light-hearted banter followed an objection raised by former Union Minister Madan Lal Khurana of the BJP over the use of English words by the Amritsar MP, Mr Raghunandan Lal Bhatia, who took the oath in Punjabi, as did most from the state.