Sindhi, Sanskrit, Dogri: The many tongues of 17th LS

India’s linguistic and cultural diversity was on full display in the Lok Sabha on Monday, as newly elected members – some donning traditional attires – took oath in different languages.

The proceedings of the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha began with observance of silence to mark the solemn occasion.

Pro-tem Speaker Virendra Kumar then called Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take oath as member of the Lok Sabha followed by his Council of Ministers.

Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, and most of the Union Ministers preferred to take oath in Hindi. Chants of ‘Modi, Modi’ rented the air as the prime minister stepped forward to read out his oath and went about greeting members of the Lok Sabha.

Union Ministers D V Sadananda Gowda and Pralhad Joshi took the oath in Kannada, while Arvind Sawant, a Shiv Sena member from South Mumbai, chose his mother tongue Marathi for the occasion. Union Minister Suresh Angadi, a member from Belagavi, took oath in English.

Most of the Lok Sabha members from Karnataka took oath in Kannada, while Anantkumar Hegde chose Sanskrit. Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha added a bit of colour to the proceedings by turning up in traditional Coorgi attire, while Bangalore South member Tejasvi Surya was dressed in a silk dhoti, white shirt and a saffron scarf.

BJP member Umesh Jadhav, who defeated Mallikarjun Kharge in Gulbarga, was wearing a scarf done up with lepo embroidery stitched with pieces of mirrors and beads, a hallmark of his Banjara community.

Congress member Kodikunnil Suresh from Kerala surprised everyone by taking the oath in Hindi, triggering thumping of desks by members. However, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi inquired why he chose Hindi over English or Malayalam.

Union Ministers Harsh Vardhan, Ashwini Choubey, Shripad Yesso Naik and Pratap Chandra Sarangi took oath in Sanskrit. Union Ministers G Kishan Reddy, Som Prakash and Rameshwar Teli stuck to their mother-tongues – Telugu, Punjabi and Assamese respectively.

Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh, who hails from Jammu region, took oath in Dogri, while Debashri Chaudhari chose Bengali.

BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab and his party colleagues took oath in Odiya, while Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal preferred Punjabi. Most Shiv Sena members took oath in Marathi, while Shankar Lalwani, who represents Indore, took oath in Sindhi.

Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy noted that his mother-tongue Bhojpuri was not in the 22 languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and hence was taking oath in Hindi.

Janardan Mishra, Lok Sabha member from Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, started off reading his oath in Bagheli, which is also not part of the Eighth Schedule. “So, I will take oath in Hindi,” Mishra told the Lok Sabha Secretary General Snehlata Shrivastava, who had told him that translation in Bagheli was not available.

BJP member from Darbhanga Gopal Thakur turned up in the traditional attire of Mithilanchal region, donning a bright yellow dhoti and kurta complete with the local headgear ‘paag’ and garlands of fox nuts (makhana).

Nisith Pramanik, a BJP member from Coochbehar in West Bengal, came to the Lok Sabha wearing a traditional Rajbongshi headgear, a feathered turban.

Dr Ashok Kumar, BJP member from Madhubani in Bihar, also arrived at the Parliament wearing a stole and cap displaying Madhubani art.