Day 1 in 15th Lok Sabha
Liz Mathew -
Monday, June 01, 2009 7:07 PM
Watching the new set of MPs coming to attend the first session of the 15th Lok Sabha was a good experience! There were moments of anxiety, eagerness, excitement and some disappointments. While there was an enthusiasm among the seniors to grab a seat in the first row inside the house, young MPs were trying to figure out the formalities and procedures to get their spouses and other families inside the house to watch the proceedings. P.K. Biju, CPM MP from Alathur, Kerala who got married on Saturday brought his wife to parliament house, but had no idea how to get her a pass to enter inside the building. Sandeep Dikshit, a second time MP from East Delhi also came to know at the last minute that he had to get a separate entry pass for his wife Mona.
The new ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet had a tough time posing for the photographs at the main gate and the gate number four as both still and television camera men insisted that they should get "good shots" on the first day! Most of them obliged, but some, out of sheer embarrassment or arrogance, refused to listen.
With Congress having 206 MPs in the Lok Sabha, the house looked more ‘white' at least at the treasury bench side as most of them including Rahul Gandhi appeared in white kurta pyjama. However, there were some showstoppers too. Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor came in typical Kerala ‘Kasavu Mundu, a golden bordered off white dhoti and Kurta and Bollywood actor Shatrughan Sinha with his silk kurta pyjama with golden stole while Takom Sanjoy, Congress member from Arunachal Pradesh grabbed attention with his blue jacket and a yellow headgear with colorful feathers. Telugu Desam Party's six MPs were easy to be spotted with their yellow silk stole. So were some of the Congress MPs from Rajasthan, who came donning their traditional colorful turbans.
The MPs tried to maintain their regional individuality in the oath taking also. While most of the Tamil Nadu MPs including Home Minister P. Chidambaram took oath in Tamil, D. Purandareswari preferred it in Telugu. Srikant Jena took oath in Oriya. BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan's oath in Sanskrit earned her huge applause from her fellow MPs.
Kamal Nath, who did some goof up while taking oath as the cabinet minister, was not present when his turn came up in the Lok Sabha. He finally turned up towards end and was sworn in even after Agatha Sangma, the youngest in the council of ministers.