The right oath

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's son Tej Pratap Yadav tripped over Hindi words twice while taking oath as a Bihar Cabinet minister last week. First, he said "upekshit" (neglected) instead of "apekshit" (expectation) and was stopped by Governor Ram Nath Kovind, who asked him to restart. The second time, he said "jab" (when), instead of "tab" (then). While social media users had fun commenting on his gaffe, political parties kept quiet. But Prasad tweeted: "PM has not taken the oath of keeping the unity and integrity of the country... There is no meaning to akshann in Hindi." Prasad also posted a YouTube video of Narendra Modi taking oath as prime minister on May 26, 2014, during which he mispronounced "akshunn" (to uphold) as "akshann". Prasad said Modi must therefore take a fresh oath of office.