The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 7 pm, with nearly 8,000 guests attending the grand event at Rashtrapati Bhavan, including leaders from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, will also be present at the oath ceremony
NEW DELHI:
Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oath ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, for which 8,000 people have been invited, the government’s media department put out an advisory urging journalists to wear hats and sunglasses to prepare for “a long summer evening”.
A communication sent from the PM’s Publicity and Reference Unit said: “We are preparing ourselves for a long summer evening. So, it will be better if you carry hat and sunglasses.”
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), temperatures today will touch a maximum of 44 degrees Celsius and weather conditions have been described as “heat wave”.
The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 7 pm, with nearly 8,000 guests attending the grand event at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Leaders of BIMSTEC countries, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan, have been invited in line with the government’s “Neighbourhood First” policy.
PM Modi began the day with a series of visits. He first visited the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and then paid tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his memorial Sadaiv Atal Samadhi.
He also visited the National War Memorial near India Gate.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance returned to power with a massive haul of 352 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP won 303 seats on its own.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, will also be present at the oath ceremony.
Chief Ministers of non-BJP ruled states will also attend the event, except for Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, who pulled out accusing the BJP of trying to politicise the occasion. She accused the BJP of falsely alleging that 54 of its workers were killed in political violence in Bengal and then inviting their families to the oath.
