An oath, a sacred performative utterance, has been intrinsic to statecraft since time immemorial. When religion was the fulcrum around which social life was regulated, an oath was nothing less than a divinely ordained duty to be performed by rulers, irrespective of religious or geographical boundaries.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan since its inception is the natural venue and inheritor of this legacy. In the colonial era, the British authorities used to profess their fidelity to their king while the ministers in the government post-independence swear by the Constitution. On August 15, 1947, when India was declared free and given the dominion status, Louis Mountbatten took oath as Governor-General expressing fidelity to the British king. He then administered the oath to Jawaharlal Nehru as head of the first independent Indian government. Nehru took the oath, swearing by the Indian Constitution, premised then on the Government of India Act 1935.
This solemn ceremony took place in the Durbar Hall, a befittingly magnificent room directly beneath the central dome of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, which veritably turned into a house of oath-taking ceremonies. One of the primary tasks of the President of India is to administer the oath of office and secrecy to those holding constitutional or statutory posts. Right from the Vice President, Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India to the Central Vigilance Commissioner, Central Election Commissioner and Central Information Commissioner, they begin their term in office with the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
After India became a republic on January 26, 1950, the ceremony was held on January 31, where 20 ministers were administered the oath by President Rajendra Prasad.
Though formal and ceremonial, these occasions often send out strong signals too. When President S Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office to Lal Bahadur Shastri on June 9, 1964, after the demise of Nehru, it was the first time such an occasion had arisen, yet the transition was smooth. This prompted the British newspaper The Guardian in an editorial, in June 1964, said that the new Prime Minister of India, in spite of all forebodings, had been named with more dispatch, and much more dignity, than was the new Prime Minister of Britain after the resignation of Harold Macmillan.
In 1984, the oath-taking ceremony of the new council of ministers was telecast live for the first time on Doordarshan, when Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister. Thanks to technology, people could witness the historic moment in real time. In 2019, the ceremony was watched live around the globe as several channels telecast it, acknowledging its importance as a major event of world politics.
On November 10, 1990, there was a shift in the venue. When President R Venkataraman administered the oath to Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, the ceremony was held in the expansive forecourt, rather than in the majestic ambience of the Durbar Hall. The open space could accommodate many more invitees, and Chandra Shekhar’s choice also reflected the prominence of mass politics. Several chief ministers, too, later choose to take oath in open or public venues. This new trend was continued by another non-Congress Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who took oath under the open skies on October 13, 1999.
It was the same venue where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was administered the oath of office, by Pranab Mukherjee on May 26, 2014, and by Ram Nath Kovind on May 30, 2019.
The forecourt is ideal when the guest list is longer, but it can also create challenges. Rashtrapati Bhavan officials recall well that on that day in 2019, the temperature was 45 degrees celsius at 4 pm, when the guests had started taking seats. Some employees were on fast – it was Ekadashi as well a day in the month of Ramazan – and yet, without food or even water under a scorching sun they were zealously working to ensure the event would go on without any hitch. The number of invitees – more than 8,000 – was higher than ever before. Chairs were placed till the Jaipur Column area. A large-screen TV was placed for better visibility.
Among the guests were also the leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) as well as Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbay Jeenbekov and Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth; in 2014, the leaders of the SAARC nations had been invited. Thus, the formal ceremony also becomes an occasion to reach out to neighbours and fulfil diplomatic goals.
After the one-and-half-hour-long swearing-in ceremony, the guests were served a variety of delicacies in the banquet hosted by President Kovind, including the famed Raisina Dal, which takes 48 hours of slow simmering for the perfect taste.
The guests also included several celebrities from various fields – art and culture, corporate sector, sports and media – and spiritual leaders, too, were in attendance. Interpreting the guest protocol for dignitaries, such as actor Rajinikant, mystic-yogic Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, is challenging in itself.
The swearing-in ceremony (1948) of C Rajagopalachari as the Governor-General of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan (Source: Rashtrapati Bhavan Archives)
The herculean task of managing the guests begins with the invitation itself – since there is barely a few days between the announcement of election results and the oath-taking ceremony. It requires great organisation skills and exceptional coordination between the President’s Secretariat and multiple agencies including the PMO, the home ministry, NDMC and police.
A crucial element here is that the names of those who take the oath are kept confidential till the ceremony begins. They are given the choice to take the oath in the name of god or affirmation in Hindi or English before the President administers it. With careful coordination, it is ensured that the President and the designated minister hold the same set of papers from which they read out.
Each minister then signs the register placed on a table on the side, and the Secretary to the President counter-signs it too. The Rashtrapati Bhavan archive has a collection of these registers, beginning with the first one that bears the signatures of all ministers of the first council of ministers, including those of Prime minister Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first home minister.
Pawan Kumar Sain, who served as Director at the Rashtrapati Bhavan till recently, is Joint Secretary, NITI Aayog. Keerti Tiwari is Deputy Press Secretary to the President