The uncouth and un-Marathi display of hooliganism at the recent swearing-in ceremony in Maharashtra, where members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) manhandled Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi, for taking his oath of office in Hindi as opposed to Marathi, betrayed a stark cultural disconnect with the aspirations of the average Marathi-speaking individual.

Four duly elected members of the state legislative assembly, all belonging to the MNS, viz. Shishir Shinde, Ram Kadam, Ramesh Vanjale and Vasant Geete, were thereafter suspended by the House for having breached its highest traditions.

The fact that popularly elected representatives would abandon their chance at five years of articulating the aspirations of their constituents through debate and discussion on the floor of the house, for a few shameful minutes of petty assault and battery, perhaps speaks volumes about intellectually bereft political posturing.

Remarkably, the Indian Constitution mandates a penalty of five hundred rupees for each day that a duly elected representative assumes office without subscribing to the oath prescribed by the Third Schedule to the Constitution. The rare sight of a textually prescribed monetary penalty within the Indian Constitution underscores the sanctity of the oath of public office.

Significantly, the oath prescribed by the Third Schedule for members of state legislative assemblies was amended by the Constitution (Sixteenth amendment) Act, 1963 to include a promise to “uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India”.

By insisting that the oath of office should only be taken in Marathi, MNS chief Raj Thackeray ironically defeated the very ‘integrity’ of the country that the oath seeks to enshrine, for national integrity knows no linguistic chauvinism.

... contd.