President’s oath ceremony Oppn alleges protocol violation in seat , the opposition claimed that during President Droupadi Murmu’s swearing-in ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament, the government purposefully disregarded Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge by forcing him to sit on a seat “not commensurate with the position he holds.”
However, the government refuted the allegation and claimed that the Opposition was misleading the public by making such “baseless” claims. Kharge, according to opposition leaders, was sat in the very left corner of the front row.
In a letter to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the opposition expressed “horror” at what they described as “deliberate disrespect displayed” to Kharge. Congressman Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote a comparable letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
“Today, during the President’s swearing-in ceremony, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge was forced to sit on a seat beneath his rank. We are writing to voice our outrage and dismay at this intentional disregard for a very senior leader, which violates the warrant of precedence and is not in line with protocol courtesies due to him, the letter said.
Members of the Congress, Shiv Sena, NCP, CPM, CPI, and the Trinamool Congress signed the letter that was delivered to the Rajya Sabha Chairman. Several Lok Sabha members of the Congress signed the letter written by Chowdhury.
Piyush Goyal, the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, responded to the accusation by accusing the Opposition of attempting to mislead the populace by making unfounded claims. “I want to inform the House that a function was planned by Parliament two days ago. The Leader of the Opposition was assigned a seat in the Central Hall of Parliament for such event, right next to the Prime Minister. “The seats adjacent to each other were allocated to the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House, and the Leader of the Opposition,” Goyal stated in the Rajya Sabha.
“However, the Leader of the Opposition was not present at the programme. It was a constitutional figure’s farewell. The seat designated for the Leader of the Opposition remained empty despite the invitation being sent out by the Chairman and Speaker, he claimed.
“In today’s programme, the seating was arranged in accordance with the Home Ministry’s order of precedence. The Leader of the Opposition is rated eighth in the list of precedence. According to the seating arrangement, the leader of the opposition should have been in the third row. We were excited to see the Leader of the Opposition in the front row. that he has been allocated a seat in the first row rather than the third row in the order of precedence. However, when he objected to being sat in a corner, the staff asked him to move to a middle seat. He was asked to relocate to a middle seat, but he refused, and it happened right in front of my eyes, he claimed.
Cabinet ministers, chief ministers of their respective states, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, past prime ministers, and opposition leaders in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are ranked sixth in the table of precedence. Chief ministers who represent their states outside of their own are listed ninth.
Some of the chief ministers, according to opposition politicians, notably Naveen Patnaik of Odisha, were sat in the first row. Goyal criticized the opposition for bringing up this issue, saying it demonstrates their mentality. “They have no problems and they don’t want the House to run smoothly.
According to official reports, Kharge was assigned a place in the front row together with Sonia Gandhi, the head of the Congress. They said that Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Lok Sabha leader for the Congress, was sat in the front row on Saturday during the farewell ceremony for Ram Nath Kovind that was held in Parliament.
According to Union Minister Prahlad Joshi, there was no breach of procedure at the President’s swearing-in event. “The opposition leader is equal to a cabinet minister in terms of precedence. His seat is in the third row, strictly speaking, according to that. Joshi added that Kharge ji was given a seat in the front row just out of respect for his seniority.
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