New Delhi, May 27 – Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of ministers have taken the oaths of office and secrecy. But the swearing-in ceremony on Monday also saw some events which, besides being informative, were unusual and interesting.
1. The callout for swearing-in indicated a new hierarchy in the BJP. Party chief Rajnath Singh took oath immediately after Modi, followed by Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the previous Lok Sabha, then Arun Jaitley, a Modi favourite, and Nitin Gadkari, a former party chief.
2. Four former chief ministers also took oath of office as union ministers. They include: Modi, Rajnath Singh, who was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Uma Bharti, a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, and DV Sadananda Gowda, a former Karnataka chief minister.
3. Among the ministers, the oldest is Najma Heptulla at 74. Heptulla had been Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson for 16 years. Smriti Irani is the youngest minister at 38.
4. Among the allies, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan was the first to be administered oath. Paswan holds the record for working with five prime ministers.
5. Among the saffron folk, Uma Bharti and Kalraj Mishra wore their favourite colour. Ananth Kumar was in a saffron angavastram while SAD MP Harsimrat kaur Badal has a shawl with saffron colour. Smriti Irani wore a saffron-green saree. Bareilly MP Santosh Gangwar wore a saffron kurta. Prakash Javadekar and Nirmala Sitharaman were in colours similar to saffron.
6. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh sat with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa sat next to BJP patriarch L.K. Advani. BJP UP in-charge Amit Shah sat with VHP chief Ashok Singhal and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi sat with former President Pratibha Patil by her side.
7. President Pranab Mukherjee had to stop TDP leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju since he didn’t identify himself before taking oath. Goa MP Shripad Naik also was interrupted by the President for the same reason.
8. The BJP has accommodated six state party chiefs in the government. They are: Harsh Vardhan (Delhi), Narendra Singh Tomar (Madhya Pradesh), Shripad Naik (Goa), Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam), Vishnudev Sai (Chhattisgarh) and Pon Radhakrishnan (Tamil Nadu).
9. Among the new cabinet ministers, Chandi Chowk MP Dr Harsh Vardhan took the oath last. Apart from him, Dr Jitendra Singh is the other medical practitioner in the council of ministers.
-INDIA TODAY
