Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, young MP and scion of former royal family, hogged the limelight at the swearing-in ceremony Sunday of seven new faces in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council of ministers.
He was the first to reach the Ashoka Hall at Rashtrapati Bhawan. A visibly elated Scindia interacted with everyone and freely mingled with the mediapersons present.
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The conspicuous absence of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders at the swearing-in ceremony set the tongues wagging. Many were speculating Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani would be present on the occasion. But he did not turn up.
Nobody from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or any other constituent of the NDA was present at the occasion.
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Sitaram Yechury of the Communist party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was the sole key figure from the Left Front present on the occasion.
Amid the confrontation between the Congress and the Left over the Indo-US nuclear deal and the elections nearing, perhaps the Left doesn't want to be seen rubbing shoulders with the Congress.
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Quashing all rumours of his ill health, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh attended the ceremony.
He even blessed Jyotiraditya Scindia who represents Guna in Madhya Pradesh. Singh walked up to his seat on his own and one would not be surprised if he contests the next Lok Sabha polls.
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Hindi was the flavour of the day at the swearing-in ceremony with all the ministers except V. Narayanaswamy, the Congress general secretary from Puducherry, taking oath in Hindi.
The first to take oath was minister of state (independent charge) Manohar Singh Gill and others - Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Santosh Bagrodia, Rameshwar Oraon and Raghunath Jha - followed the suit.
Indo-Asian News Service
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