- By Imran Zafar
- Tue, 25 Jun 2024 01:56 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
On the first day of the 18th Lok Sabha, linguistic and cultural diversity was prominently displayed as many MPs took oaths in their mother tongues. Despite the variety, BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran, Bihar, expressed regret over not being able to take his oath in Bhojpuri, a language not listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
MPs are permitted to take oaths in English or any of the 22 scheduled languages, which include English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Dogri, Bengali, Assamese and Oriya. Any other languages are not allowed in the house to take oath as a member of the Parliament.
The Eighth Schedule's exclusion of Bhojpuri was the reason Rajiv Pratap Rudy couldn't use his preferred language for the oath. While addressing the Speaker, Rudy remarked on the positivity of MPs using their mother tongues for the ceremony, noting that it would have been even better if Bhojpuri had been an option.
"Everyone is taking oath in their own languages and it feels so good... It would have been even better if we could have taken oath in Bhojpuri," Rudy said.
The oath-taking was presided over by Radha Mohan Singh, a BJP MP from Bihar's Purvi Champaran. Ultimately, Rudy took his oath in Hindi. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, Rudy emerged victorious against Rohini Acharya, daughter of RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav.
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22 Schedule Languages
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.