The inaugural session of the 18th Lok Sabha, which is being dubbed as one of the fiercest in the recent past, even saw the Lok Sabha Speaker amending the oath-taking rules for the new Parliamentarians after a controversy erupted over MPs swearing-in along ideological lines.The amendment came in the wake of several members raising slogans such as Jai Hind’, ‘Jai Constitution’, ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Jai Hindu Rashtra’, ‘Jai Bhim’ and ‘Jai Palestine” after taking their oaths during the special session of Parliament.What does the amendment say?According to the amended rule, mambers are prohibited from adding any remark to the oath-taking as members of the House.In the new rule, Om Birla added a fresh clause to ‘Direction 1’ of the ‘Directions by the Speaker’ for regulating certain matters related to the functioning of the House that are not specifically provided in the rules.According to the amendment to ‘Direction 1′, the new clause 3 now states that a member shall make and subscribe to the oath or affirmation, and “shall not use any word or expression or make any remark as a prefix or suffix to the form of oath or affirmation”.The rowA political slugfest ensued after AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi chanted a series of slogans, including ‘Jai Palestine’ and BJP’s Chhatra Pal Singh Gangwar invoked ‘Hindu Rashtra, Jai Bharat,’ during the oath-taking ceremony. Later, the remarks were expunged by the Speaker after a war of words erupted between the Opposition and the treasury benches.Several Opposition leaders including Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav took oath holding a copy of the Constitution in their hands and with chants of ‘Long live India, long live the Constitution’. On one occasion, Birla objected to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor saying ‘Jai Samvidhan’ after taking oath as a member of the House.
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