MPs Forbidden To Make Additional Remark During Oath, Om Birla Changes Rule

Speaker of the Lok Sabha Om Birla has changed the parliamentary rules so that freshly elected Members of Parliament cannot make any more statements before or after taking the oath of office or affirming their membership.

Rule 389 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha (Seventeenth Edition) has been amended by the Speaker.

A “member shall make and subscribe oath or affirmation, as the case may be, in accordance with the form set out for the purpose, in the Third Schedule to the Constitution of India 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 amendment stated.

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The amendment comes amid controversy over some MPs raising slogans like “Jai Palestine”, “Jai Hindu Rashtra” while taking oath.

Recently, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi raised slogans of ‘Jai Bhim, Jai Mim, Jai Telangana and ‘Jai Palestine’ in the House after taking oath as an MP. Apart from Owaisi, some other MPs also raised slogans before or after taking oath.

The amendment by Om Birla to ‘Direction 1’, the new clause 3 now prevents MPs from using affirmation of their choice. It states, “shall not use any word or expression or make any remark as a prefix or suffix to the form of oath or affirmation”.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju claimed that a number of MPs sent a political message during the solemn occasion of taking an oath or affirmation.