President Leaves Parliament With Official Carrying Sengol After Opposition’s Outcry To Replace It With Constitution

New Delhi: After the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on Thursday, President Droupadi Murmu left with an official carrying the Sengol ahead of her.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party MP RK Chaudhary wrote to the Speaker Om Birla saying the ‘sengol’ must be replaced by a copy of the Constitution. “The adoption of the Constitution marked the beginning of democracy in the country, and the Constitution is its symbol. The BJP government in its last term installed ‘sengol’ next to the Speaker’s chair. Sengol is a Tamil word that means sceptre. Rajdand also means the king’s stick. We have become independent after the age of kings. Now, every man and woman who is an eligible voter chooses the government to run this country. So will the country run by Constitution or by a king’s stick?” he told news agency ANI. The former Uttar Pradesh minister demanded that the ‘sengol’ be replaced by a copy of the Constitution to “save democracy”.

“When ‘sengol’ was installed, the Prime Minister had bowed to it. But he forgot to bow while taking oath this time. I think our MP wanted to remind the Prime Minister about it, ” said Akhilesh Yadav.

Senior Congress leader and MP B Manickam Tagore echoed the Samajwadi Party MP on the ‘sengol’ row. “We have been very clear that the ‘sengol’ symbolises kingship and the kingdom-era is over. We should celebrate the people’s democracy and the Constitution,” he told NDTV.

Chaudhary’s demand was also backed by RJD MP and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti. “Whosoever has demanded this, I welcome it,” she said.

The Sengol is a handcrafted, gold-plated sceptre about 5-feet long. The Sengol, installed in the Lok Sabha during the inauguration of the new Parliament building last year, was handed to India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, as a symbol of the transfer of power from the British to Indians.