The Hindu : National : New RS members take oath

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004

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National

New RS members take oath

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 5. The Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, the Bahujan Samaj Party leader, Mayawati, the Leader of the Opposition, Jaswant Singh, the former Deputy Chairperson of the House, Najma Heptulla, actress Jaya Bachchan and industrialist Anil Ambani were among the 52 persons who took oath as members of the Rajya Sabha here today. Ms. Heptulla is now a BJP member.

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, was present in the House for 10 minutes. Earlier, he introduced Jaipal Reddy as the Minister for Information and Broadcasting.

Watched by Amitabh Bachchan and Tina Ambani from the visitor's gallery, Ms. Bachchan and Mr. Ambani took oath in Hindi and English respectively. Ms. Bachchan touched the feet of the Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, after taking oath.

Among others who took oath were BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Pramod Mahajan and Arun Shourie, Congress leaders Mohsina Kidwai, Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh and Oscar Fernandes and noted Sarvodaya leader Nirmala Deshpande, who is a nominated member.

There were five absentees — V. Hanumantha Rao (Congress), Pyarelal Khandelwal (BJP), Dilip Singh Judeo (BJP), Sharad Joshi (Swatantra Bharat Paksh) and Nand Kishore (SP).

Seven members have been elected to the Upper House from Andhra Pradesh, two each from Bihar and Chhattisgarh, four each from Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, five from Rajasthan, six from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, three from Punjab, 11 from Uttar Pradesh and one each from Uttaranchal and West Bengal, while one has been nominated.

While Mr. Naidu, Mr. Joshi and Congress member Santosh Bagrodia took oath in Sanskrit, all the three members from Punjab took oath in Gurmukhi and all the members from Tamil Nadu in Tamil. Ms. Kidwai and Kamaal Akhtar (SP) took oath in Urdu. Several members took oath in their mother tongue including Kannada, Telugu, Marathi and Oriya.

Mr. Jaswant Singh and Mr. Mahajan bowed before the Chairman, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, after taking oath. Ms. Heptulla was cheered by the BJP benches when her name was announced but only a few from the Congress benches cheered their former colleague.

Amid laughter, Mr. Joshi, who shook hands with Mr. Arjun Singh after taking oath, was asked to repeat it by the Congress member, Suresh Pachauri. Mr. Gyan Singh Pilania took oath sitting on a wheel chair. A secretariat official went to him and took his signature.

Ms. Mayawati did not acknowledge any side as she went to take oath. But when she returned to her seat, the Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, greeted her with a `namaste.' She returned the greeting without a smile.

Welcoming the new members, Mr. Shekhawat said he hoped they would maintain high standards of debate and enhance the dignity and prestige of the House. "We would welcome infusion of new ideas and fresh thinking on the critical issues facing the country,'' he said.

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