Swearing In The House: From Sunny Deol to Sadhvi Pragya, the MPs who made news right at their oath

If you know anything about Indian politics, you know that no political event — major or minor — goes without a controversy (major or minor). Now that the elections have ended, it wouldn't be wrong for some to expect things to cool down. But, in the last few weeks, we have seen full-blown mud-slinging, verbal sparring and heated hate speech instead.

So, if you were thinking that the oath-taking ceremonies of the new MPs would go without creating a controversy, you were wrong.

So wrong.

Several members of Parliament made outstanding headlines during the swearing-in ceremony itself. Take Sunny Deol — the man showed up dressed modestly enough, in jeans, a white shirt and blazer. If you ask me, he was making a fashion statement by breaking that musty khadi-covered stereotype that politicians must always dress in kurta-pyjamas.

But a good fashion sense unfortunately does not guarantee good oratory skills too. Sunny Deol made a blunder while taking his oath — he reportedly said, 'withhold the sovereignty and integrity of the country' instead of 'uphold the sovereignty and integrity of the country'. To his credit, the man was quick to rectify the error. But clearly, the ‘dhai kilo ka haath’ missed its target this time and left the Opposition titttering.

Another blunder came from controversy’s favourite child, Sadhvi Pragya.

During her oath-taking, Sadhvi Pragya decided to suffix the name of her spiritual guru with her own name. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t a short name like, say, Rahul or Raj. It was a name as long as ‘Swami Purna Chetnanand Avdheshanand Giri’.

Seriously, Pragya ji? 

The fact that Sadhvi Pragya took the oath-taking opportunity in Parliament, no less, to pay personal homage to her spiritual guru shows that she possibly didn’t take the oath too seriously in the first place.

As expected, the Opposition did not beam with delight. They objected vociferously to her not stating the name correctly during the oath-taking ceremony. Amidst the uproar, the Pro-tem speaker Virendra Kumar said that only the name written on her election certificate would go on record. Kudos to Kumar for stepping in and handling the situation with the rules.

That's something many of our rule-makers have forgotten.

The next controversy was created by — you guessed it right — our very own Rahul Gandhi.

The man was probably so excited over his upcoming happy birthday, and all the wishes and goodies that are to pour in, that he completely forgot the customary practice of signing the Lok Sabha register! Rahul was immediately called back by Rajnath Singh and the Lok Sabha staff, so he could sign. But not before the whole 'forgetful-in-excitement' episode launched a thousand new jokes on social media.

Clearly, our netas can't bear to not make news for all the wrong reasons — even on an occasion as formal, correct and important as their oath-taking in Parliament.

But why are they in such a hurry to prove their true skills though?

After all, there are five more years to follow.

Also Read: Sadhvi Pragya has a right to be nominated. And the electorate should defeat her. But it won’t happen