Nitish gets front row seat, Shah greeting at swearing-in

After the ceremony, Shah walked over to Nitish. The two shook hands and spoke briefly. Minutes later, Modi had a brief exchange with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee has been on the offensive since demonetisation and has alleged political vendetta after many of her party’s MPs and MLAs were named in the Narada, Saradha and Rose Valley scams. Modi and Banerjee apparently exchanged notes about the flood situation in Gujarat and West Bengal, with the PM advising the CM to apprise Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the situation. Singh is nursing a fractured foot.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who arrived 15 minutes before the ceremony started, did not get a seat. A Parliament staffer, who was showing people to their seats, directed him towards the benches. So Kejriwal walked down the aisle, passing by Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje and Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh in the fourth row. While some people greeted Kejriwal, there was no effort to make room for him.

Kejriwal was finally rescued by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, who ushered him to the back where TMC chief Banerjee was sitting, surrounded by her MPs. Kejriwal and Banerjee share a good rapport — Kejriwal often drops by at Trinamool MP and Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek’s South Avenue flat.

Immediately after the new President and ex-President walked out, the band played a Rabindranath Tagore song, “Anando loke mongola loke”. The TMC contingent sang along loudly. Later, Banerjee said: “They are doing this with Tagore, so we wanted to make a point.” The reference was to the recommendation of the RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas to the NCERT to remove the thoughts of Tagore from school textbooks.

The ceremony ended with a 21-gun salute to the new President, who began his day much like his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee had done five years ago — with a trip to Rajghat. BSP chief Mayawati, though, opined, “It would have been better had Kovindji visited the statue of B R Ambedkar in Parliament, besides visiting Rajghat. This is a sign of NDA’s anti-Ambedkar stance.”

Escorted by the military secretary, Kovind travelled to Rashtrapati Bhavan, from where he and the outgoing President took the President’s official vehicle to go to Parliament. There was a ceremonial salute there for the outgoing President. After the ceremony in Parliament, the two went back to Rashtrapati Bhavan in the same car — seats changed — where Mukherjee showed Kovind the study (office of the President of India) and seated him on the chair designated for the President. Kovind then dropped Mukherjee off at his new home on Rajaji Marg.