Journalism of Courage
The Louis Vuitton scarf that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wore in Parliament while seeking a joint parliamentary committee inquiry into the Adani Group generated a row in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday, with the BJP saying that the cost of the scarf should be probed instead.
In August last year, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra faced criticism for allegedly trying to “hide” her Louis Vuitton bag during a Lok Sabha discussion on price rise. Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan, who are both actors and TMC MPs from West Bengal, were criticised online for the outfits they wore for their first Parliament session in 2019.
In 2021, Vimal Chudasama, Congress MLA from the Somnath constituency in Gujarat, was evicted from the state Assembly for coming to the House wearing a T-shirt with the words, “free spirit” on it. He responded that he had won votes campaigning in this attire.
His party too opposed the Speaker’s decision, arguing that there were no rules regarding how a legislator should dress in the Assembly. The speaker, however, refused to budge, stating, “Because you are an MLA, you cannot come to the House in any manner, in any clothes. This is not a playground. You are not on a vacation. There is a protocol of uniform.”
As far as formal rules go, there are none with regard to the attire of a political leader in Parliament or any Assembly.
However, clothing has been integral to making a political statement – Mahatma Gandhi in Khadi being the best example. Khadi was patronised after Independence too. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had a signature non-western look too in khadi: tight pyjamas teamed up with long sherwani and what is now famous as the ‘nehru jacket’.
“Concerned by the post-independence sartorial confusion around him, Nehru wrote an official note on dress, advising those in higher grades of government office to steer clear of European clothes, which ‘marked them out as a privileged, denationalised and out-of-date class, and to adopt such clothes as would take them closer to the people’,” wrote social anthropologist Emma Tarlo in her book, ‘Clothing matters: Dress and identity in India.
Nehru’s commitment to a non-European look was passed on to his daughter Indira Gandhi, who also would be seen in public mostly in handloom cotton sarees. Rajiv Gandhi too favoured khadi after he entered office in 1984.
The matter also came up during Constituency Assembly debates. On April 29, 1947, Rohini Kumar suggested a ban on discrimination against dress worn by any nationality. “Even today when we are on the threshold of Independence there are hotels which do not welcome people dressed in Indian style,” Kumar said. “I am not afraid of the future, because I believe that when India is independent such restrictions would disappear. But what I am afraid of is a reprisal or a revenge taken against such European minded people and people in European dress may not be allowed to come into hotels. For that reason particularly I want that this amendment should be accepted by this House.”
With inputs from Adrija Roychowdhury
