Modi sworn in as 15th PM
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies
New Delhi, May 26 2014:
Narendra Modi, India's 15th Prime Minister, took oath on Monday at a ceremony held in the open at Rashtrapati Bhavan and attended by the Who's Who of the nation, including political leaders, business honchos, ce-lebrities and leaders of religious faiths, as well as leaders of neighbouring countries.
The oath of office and secrecy was administered in Hindi to Modi by President Pranab Mukherjee.
There was a certain poignancy to the momentous occasion as the inauguration of a new Prime Minister happened exactly 50 years after the death of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Present on the occasion of the change of guard was the outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who remained 10 years at the helm when the general election left the Congress battered and re-duced to its lowest tally of 44 seats in the Lok Sabha.
A council of ministers, numbering around 45, also took oath.
Among the foreign leaders who attended the ceremony at the forecourt of the Rashra-pati Bhavan were Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Also present were Mauritius Prime Minister Navin- chandra Ramgoolam, Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koi-rala, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan and Bangladesh parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi and former presidents A P J Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil were among the over 4,000 people who gathered on the occasion.
This is the first time that the heads of state and government of SAARC nations were invited to attend the swearing-in ceremony of an Indian Prime Minister, a move which is seen by political observers here as a significant initiative.
Sharif is accompanied by a delegation comprising his adviser on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz, special assistant Tariq Fatemi and Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry among others.
63-year-old Modi, who led BJP to an astounding victory in the Lok Sabha polls, was administered oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee at a glittering ceremony attended by around 3,000 guests including leaders of various other parties and Chief Ministers of a number of states.
Modi will have "short duration bilateral meetings" with all the SAARC leaders tomorrow.
It was the third time that swearing-in ceremony was held at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Swearing-in of Chandrashekhar in 1990 and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998 were held at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan and saw an attendance of 1,200 to 1,300 .