A verbal tiff between the Treasury and Opposition benches gathered all the attention during the second round of oath-taking by members at the commencement of the 17th Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Several parliamentarians were heckled when they were taking oaths in the Parliament.

South Asia At Hudson

There were reported chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Jai Maa Kali’, and even one MP chanting ‘Inquilab Zindabad,’ as individual MPs came forth to take the oath. 

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi was met with slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ from the treasury benches when the Hyderabad MP moved to take his oath. Owaisi responded by saying, ‘Jai Bheem, Jai Meem, Takbeer Allahu Akbar, Jai Hind’ after he read out his oath.

‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogans were also raised while chairperson Sonia Gandhi took oath in Hindi.

Many have taken to Twitter to express their disdain with this show of ‘majoritarian bullying’.