Cabinet reshuffle: When Piyush Goyal's mother-in-law fainted; a senior minister joked 'my job is safe'
A look at all the drama that took place inside Rashtrapati Bhavan as several fresh faces joined the Modi government while some others took oath as Cabinet ministers.
The swearing-in ceremony for new inductees in the Union Cabinet was scheduled to start at 10.30 am today at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The programme, however, started 5 minutes late as an elderly woman sitting in the rows reserved for guests fainted.
The woman, who was initially administered medicines, was later taken out of the Rashtrapati Bhavan in a stretcher. This led to commotion and delayed the oath-taking ceremony by a few minutes.
The elderly woman was later identified as the mother-in-law of Piyush Goyal, who took oath as a Cabinet minister and is the new Railways Minister.
- Dharmendra Pradhan was the first to take the oath as Cabinet minister today. While taking the oath of secrecy, Pradhan mis-spelt the word 'Sansuchit'. At this, President Ram Nath Kovind asked him to repeat the word again. Pradhan ended up repeating the oath of secrecy.
- As Bihar governor, Ram Nath Kovind had ticked off Tej Pratap Yadav when the latter mis-spelt a word. Ram Nath Kovind had then made Lalu Prasad's son repeat the oath.
- Nirmala Sitharaman, Hardeep Puri and Alphons Kannanthanam took the oath of office in English. Rest all the ministers read out their oaths in Hindi.
- Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was the sole representative of the Opposition at the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Janata Dal (United) which had formally joined the NDA recently stayed away from the ceremony. BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani, who is often seen at Rashtrapati Bhavan events, was not spotted and neither was Union minister Uma Bharti.
- Among the six ministers who had resigned from the Modi government recently, Kalraj Mishra, Sanjeev Baliyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey attended today's oath-taking ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Later, Sanjeev Baliyan and Kalraj Mishra met the newly-inducted ministers. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also met the new inductees in the Union cabinet and even hugged Ashwini Choubey.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and senior Cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley were seated in the front row.
- A senior minister in the Modi government told the reporters in a light vein that he is happy that at least his job is safe.
- BJP chief Amit Shah reached Rashtrapati Bhavan a few minutes before Narendra Modi arrived. All the ministers were seen greeting Shah. The BJP chief was seen talking to Thawar Chand Gehlot, Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, at length.
- M Thamburai represented the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) at the oath-taking ceremony.
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