3 min readChandigarhJan 1, 2017 05:07 AM IST
First published on: Jan 1, 2017 at 05:07 AM IST
BJP councillor, Shakti Devshali Express Photo
Sanskrit is all set to make its debut in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, as one of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors has announced he will take his oath in the ancient Indian language. The oath-taking ceremony will take place on Sunday at 11.30 am. All the councillors were given three options – English, Hindi, and Punjabi – of which they had to select the language in which they want to take oath. Taking everyone by surprise, Shakti Devshali, BJP councillor, informed the officials that he wanted to take oath in Sanskrit.
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As the officials did not have any such provision, they asked Devshali to get the lines translated into Sanskrit by himself. ”I don’t forget my culture and that is why I decided to take oath in Sanskrit. Because the MC had no provision for any translator who could translate it, so they gave me the lines and I have got it translated myself,” said Devshali.
Mayor Arun Sood said that only one councillor will be taking oath in Sanskrit, while the others have opted from the given three languages. “Most of them have opted to take the oath in Hindi and Punjabi. Only some are there who have given their options of taking oath in English,” said Sood who himself will be taking oath in Punjabi.
As the term of the previous house will expire on December 31, the administration decided to hold the oath-taking ceremony on Sunday, January 1. A special screen will be put up in the parking of the Municipal Corporation building, where kin of the newly-elected councillors can see the ceremony. “Because only one person will be allowed with the councillor, the other family members can see the ceremony on the screen that will be put up in the MC parking,” added the Mayor.
The BJP-SAD has 21 of 26 councillors in the new house. While four others are from Congress, one councillor is an independent. The trend of taking oath in Sanskrit was started by senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj in 2009, when she took oath as the leader of the opposition.
BJP councillor, Shakti Devshali Express Photo
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