'Jai Shri Ram' was chanted in Parliament after Kovind's oath
A group of BJP MPs raised slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' after President Ram Nath Kovind was sworn-in at the Parliament's Central Hall on Tuesday. Many officials also thumped their desks after the 71-year-old took the oath as the 14th President of India. Kovind was given a 21-gun salute to mark the assumption of office.
A section of BJP MPs shouted Jai Shri Ram after Ram Nath Kovind was sworn in as India's 14th President in a ceremony in Parliament's Central Hall today.Full text: President Ram Nath Kovind's speech in ParliamentThe slogan Jai Shri Ram originated during the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babari Masjid movement in the 80s that catapulted the BJP from a marginal player to India's political mainstream.Kovind, former Bihar Governor, is a long-time member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the BJP.President inspecting Guard of Honour. pic.twitter.com/8LbBvDveSxThis is not the first time Jai Shri Ram slogans were raised inside Parliament.In March this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was greeted with the same slogan by the BJP MPs when he walked into the House following the party's stunning victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Assembly elections.Opposition leaders have often accused Modi of using the presidential race, which Kovind won easily in an electoral college last week, to further a divisive Hindutva agenda.Kovind's rise also caps a series of top appointments backed by Modi - including naming hardline Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh - that tighten the grip of the Hindu right on key public offices. ALSO READ: What President Ram Nath Kovind said in his first address after taking oath