After a decade, Opposition in Lok Sabha in numbers, and a voice

And on Monday, the first day of the 18th Lok Sabha, Opposition MPs appeared to have borrowed Advani’s line to their advantage – jubilant and vibrant outside the House, more confident and emboldened inside. After a decade, from just two rows of seats, they were now occupying more than a third of the House benches.

The BJP, which left the new Parliament building in February in an upbeat mood chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Ab ki baar 400 paar’, was somewhat subdued barring one round of ‘Modi Modi’ when Narendra Modi, elected Prime Minister for a third successive term, rose to take oath as MP.

On the other side of the Well, Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the SP whose tally climbed from five to 37, made Awadhesh Prasad, the 79-year-old who won the Faizabad seat (Ayodhya), sit in the first row with himself and Rahul Gandhi.

With the BJP no longer in majority in the House, the Lower House reverbated to the sounds of a confident Opposition. The Congress, DMK and TMC MPs held a protest outside the House, holding red-cover copies of the Constitution and standing at the spot where the statue of Mahatma Gandhi used to be. They then marched to the House to take oath. A few minutes later, Akhilesh Yadav led his party men, all wearing red stoles and holding copies of the Constitution, to the floor of the House.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders show copies of the Constitution of India during their protest at the Parliament House complex on the first day of the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha. (PTI)

The mood inside was probably an indication of what could be expected in the House, at least for a few sessions. Members of the Opposition waved copies of the Constitution when Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were called to take oath. They were heard shouting slogans such as ‘Long live the Constitution’, ‘We will save the Constitution’ while Modi was at the podium. After all, one of the Opposition lines during the election campaign was that the BJP would change the Constitution if it were to return to power with 400-plus seats.

The Opposition also united to protest the alleged irregularities in competitive exams, including the NEET-UG and UGC-NET, and shouted “NEET, NEET” and “Shame, Shame” when Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan proceeded to take oath. The Opposition parties have already announced that they will raise the issue in Parliament.

That the Opposition was in a belligerent mood was apparent from the start of the proceedings. When pro tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab – whose nomination was questioned by the Opposition which felt that Congress MP K Suresh, the most senior most MP, should have got the honour – called the three senior Opposition MPs, none of them – Suresh, T R Baalu (DMK) and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC) – stepped forward since the Opposition had decided to pull them out from the list of presiding officers to administer the oath. Suresh stood up to put the objection on record, but it was not allowed by the Chair.

Many of the Opposition MPs, almost all the Congress MPs from Kerala, held copies of the Constitution in their hands while taking oath.

TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee’s comments brought some laughter to the House on the first day. “You also want to divide the House?” he asked Mahtab, pointing to the two podiums for oath-taking – one on the treasury benches side and the other on the Opposition side – as against the solo podium in the old Parliament House. Mahtab just smiled. He left the choice to the MPs and many from the Opposition proceeded to the right side of the Chair.

When Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh of JD-U, which switched to the ruling NDA before the polls, Banerjee was heard singing “Dost dost na raha, pyaar pyaar na raha”. When Union Minister Giriraj Singh, known for remarks that have kicked up rows, came to the podium, Banerjee said: “Aap ki wajhe se hamare ko bahut vote zyada mila. Thank you.”

Newly elected MPs took oath in Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Telugu, Dogri, Bangla, Assamese, Odia, Gujarati and Malayalam. Before taking his oath in Malayalam, actor-politician Suresh Gopi, a member of the Union Council of Ministers and the first BJP MP from Kerala, invoked the Gods, saying “Krishna, Guruvayurappa”.

Many of the MPs were seen in their traditional attires – Assam MPs donned the white-and-red-coloured gamchas, TMC MP Kirti Azad came in traditional Bengali dhoti. Outside Parliament House, Union Minister Anupriya Patel’s red-and-black sari had DMK MPs M Kanimozhi and Thamizhachi Sumathy commenting that she is “DMK in mind” – red and black are signature colours of the DMK. “Look at her, she’s orange,” Patel said, pointing to Sumathy’s bright orange sari, while hugging Kanimozhi.

MPs started arriving at the Parliament building complex much before 11 am. While many newly elected MPs were seen busy taking photographs with family members outside the House and introducing themselves to others, those who returned were excited to be back. Kanimozhi was carrying a book – Moustache by S Hareesh – which was gifted by a Kerala MP.

Under Opposition fire, Pradhan engaged in conversations with several MPs. When he saw his colleague Jual Oram, Pradhan walked up to him and narrated an instance from the past – how he, as an ABVP leader, and Oram came to see the Parliament House building in 1997. According to Pradhan, Oram, looking at the old building, said: “Yahin aayen to achcha hota (it would have been good if we had come here).”