Pune: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu administered the oath to 45 elected – including 36 first-timers - members of the upper House while following social distancing norms in the chamber. Naidu urged all members to uphold rules and procedures while discharging their duties as lawmakers and not fall prey to disruptions.
It was the first time in the history of Rajya Sabha that its members were administered oaths while the Parliament was not in session. The oath-taking ceremony had to be postponed twice earlier due to health safety concerns and travel restrictions during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
The members who took oath included Sharad Pawar, Ramdas Athawale, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijay Singh, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Priyanka Chaturvedi and others. The new members, including three women, took the oath of office in Marathi, Telugu, Bodo, Kannada, Manipuri, Oriya, Tamil, Bengali, Hindi and English. Those members who could not take oath on Wednesday (July 22) will do so during the upcoming Monsoon Session.
Bhartiya Janata Party’s Scindia who has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh greeted his erstwhile opponents from Congress party – Digvijay Singh and Kharge – before taking oath. Ghulam Nabi Azad who is the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha welcomed Scindia.
After the oath-taking ceremony, Naidu advised the members not to fall prey to the temptation of disrupting the proceedings of the House for short-term gains. He also suggested that the first-time members should enhance their knowledge about the history and contribution of the House by reading standard books. “Ensuring the rule of law is the spirit of our Constitution. It shall begin with your compliance of rules and procedures of this House,” Naidu stated.
MEMBERS FROM MAHARASHTRA
