@prashanthamine
Mumbai: Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari on Saturday has further stoked the recent controversy over chants of “Jai Bhavani, Jai Shivaji” involving newly elected Rajya Sabha member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Udayanraje Bhosale. In a letter written to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to come up with an advisory to be adhered to in the context of the form and oath being read out by members.
In his letter the Governor said that it is being observed that some of the newly elected members of parliament and state legislatures are departing from the prescribed form of language for oath taking and adding the names of their party leaders or venerable
personalities while reading oaths.
The Governor noted that such directions were needed to preserve the
‘sanctity and dignity’ of the oath taking process.
“Adding names of party leaders or any other person to whom members owe
their faith or allegiance, to the format of the oath taking, violates the
sanctity of oath taking process”, wrote Koshyari.
In separate letters addressed to the presiding officers of Rajya Sabha and
Lok Sabha, Governor Koshyari recalled that he had to personally intervene
and direct some of the members being sworn in as Ministers in Maharashtra to repeat their oath strictly as per the prescribed format without any addition or deletion.
In this context, he has urged the Vice President and Lok Sabha Speaker ‘to
examine and deliberate upon’ the issue of departure by members from the
prescribed format for oath and to come up with suitable directions /
advisories to all concerned stakeholders so as to safeguard the sanctity
and dignity of the oath taking process.
It may be recalled that Shiv Sena and Congress had slammed the BJP and criticised Vice President of India and Rajya Sabha Chairman for trying to remind the BJP MP to stick to the format of the oath. He added that the members could not chant slogans when they take their oath of membership. The controversy was laid to rest with the Rajya Sabha Chairman stating that he had the highest regards for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
This is not the first time that such an incident has happened. It may be recalled that when Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray expanded his cabinet in December 2019, some of his cabinet colleagues had deviated from practice and raised slogans. It may be recalled that Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had to stop some Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ministers and ask them to take the oath in the prescribed format.
