Linguistic diversity of India was on full display in the Lok Sabha when members took oath as the 17th Lok Sabha commenced proceedings on Monday.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh took oath in Hindi, some members of parliament (MPs) preferred to do so in various regional languages.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, an ENT surgeon, left other MPs in the house surprised when he completed his oath in Sanskrit. Ministers of State Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Pratap Chandra Sarangi also took the oath in Sanskrit.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Sadananda Gowda, both hailing from Karnataka, took their oaths in Kannada.
It was a surprise to many when Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh from Kerala chose to take oath not in English or his mother tongue Malayalam but in Hindi as a member of the 17th Lok Sabha. He took oath immediately after the Prime Minister.
Suresh and two other senior members Brajbhushan Saran Singh and Bhartruhari Mahtab have been appointed by the President to be in the panel of chairmen to conduct proceedings till the new Speaker is elected. Singh and Mahtab took oath after Suresh.
MoS in Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh, who hails Jammu and Kashmir, took oath in his mother tongue Dogri.
Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur, who had taken oath in English as Union Minister on May 30, today preferred to take oath in Punjabi. BJP MP from Hoshiarpur Som Prakash also used the same language to take oath.
Union Cabinet Minister Rameshwar Teli and Kripanath Mallah, and Naba Kumar Saranai took oaths in Assamese.
Raiganj MP Debasree Chaudhuri, who was elected from Raiganj parliamentary constituency in West Bengal took oath in Bengali and Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy also took oath in the same language.
Shiv Sena MP and Cabinet Minister Arvind Sawan used Marathi to take his oath while Union Minister Shripad Yeso Naik used Konkani to take oath.
Lok Sabha MPs elected from Andhra Pradesh Talari Rangaiah, Vanga Geethaviswanath, YS Avinash Reddy, Beesetti Venkata Satyavathi, Adala Prabhakara Reddy, Bellana Chandra Sekhar, Goddeti Madhavi, M V V Satyanarayana, Vanga Geethaviswanath, Margani Bharat, NReddeppa, Balashowry Vallabbhaneni, Nandigam Suresh and Pocha Brahmananda Reddy all took oath using Telugu .
Some of their counterparts from Andhra Pradesh took their oath in English.
Protem Speaker Virendra Kumar was sworn in earlier today by the President in Rashtrapti Bhawan on the first day of the maiden session of the 17th Lok Sabha.
The election for Speaker of the Lok Sabha will take place on June 19, and President Ram Nath Kovind will address the joint session of Parliament on June 20.
The Union Budget will be presented by the new government on July 5.
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