New Military-look uniform for Marshals in Rajya Sabha

When the Rajya Sabha assembled for its 250th sessions, the members were in for a surprise.

The traditional ethnic attire of the marshals – bandhgala and turban – has been substituted by a Navy Blue military-style uniform completed with Peaked Caps and Lanyards.

Those who are seniors will be having four stripes on the soldiers while the juniors will have two, sources told DH.

The new uniform will be donned by four marshals who are allowed to enter the Upper House. Two of them stand on both sides of the Chairman's seat while the other two are stand-by.

While several retired officers of the armed forces took to the social media to air their objections against the uniform particularly the Peaked Cap worn by Army Generals, Congress member Jairam Ramesh too made an attempt to protest against the new uniform. Ramesh, however, was not given a chance to speak by the Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

The winter session of the Parliament is being held between November 18 and December 13. On the first day, a special session was held at the Rajya Sabha to commemorate its 250th sitting in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh spoke.

The Elders also made obituary references to two sitting members (Arun Jaitley and Ram Jethmalani) and three former members (Jagannath Mishra, Gurudas Dasgupta and Sukhdev Singh Libra).