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Parliament House

Sengol, the golden sceptre

Pushpa Narayan, May 25, 2023: The Times of India

Chennai: PM Narendra Modi will be following in the footsteps of India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru when he receives a golden sceptre (‘sengol’ in Tamil) at the inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28.


Marking the transfer of power in 1947, Nehru received the ‘sengol’ from the deputy pontiff of the Thiruvavaduthurai ‘adheenam’. This time, pontiffs of 20 ‘adheenams’ (nonBrahmin Shaivite mutts in Tamil Nadu) will preside over the rituals. They will hand over the ‘sengol’ to Modi at 7. 20am after a 20-minute ‘homam’ or ‘havan’. Modi will then install it on a pedestal to the right of the Speaker’s chair.


“The ‘sengol’ represents values of fair and equitable governance,” said home minister Amit Shah. “It will shine near the Lok Sabha Speaker’s podium as a national symbol of ‘amrit kaal’, an era that will witness the new India taking its rightful place in the world. ”


In 1947, the ‘sengol’ was made on the advice of C Rajagopalachari, the last Governor General of India, when Nehru asked his cabinet how the transfer of power from the British should be marked. Rajaji referred to the ancient Chola custom of the ‘rajaguru’ handing over a sceptre to the king on his coronation. Madras jeweller Vummudi Bangaru Chetty was commissioned to make the ‘sengol’ in four weeks.

On August 14, Viceroy Mountbatten handed the sceptre over to the Tamil pontiffs who purified it and handed it over to Prime Minister Nehru at his home just before he left for Parliament House to deliver the historic “tryst with destiny” speech in the intervening night of August 14-15, 1947.

For decades, the sceptre was forgotten. It lay in a dusty box at the Allahabad Museum, wrongly labelled as a golden walking stick gifted to Nehru. This time, PM Modi will carry the sceptre in the new Parliament building, ac- companied by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and the pontiffs from Tamil Nadu.

Dignitaries and the mutt heads, including Thiruvavaduthurai ‘adheenam’ Sri La Sri Ambalavana Desika Paramacharya Swamigal, will stand in the Well of the House when the Prime Minister installs the sceptre on the specially designed pedestal.

At least 31 members of the ‘adheenams’ will leave Chennai for New Delhi in two batches on chartered flights. Ahead of the ceremony on May 28, Modi will honour them at his residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.

The whip

Origin of ‘whip’

Whip governs expelled legislators

The Times of India, Aug 04 2016

Dhananjay Mahapatra

The Supreme Court refused to answer questions raised by expelled MPs Amar Singh, Jaya Prada and Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, leading to revival of its 1996 judgment making elected representatives thrown out of a party amenable to the party whip in a House. The SC had on November 15, 2010 passed an 11-page judgment staying application of its 1996 judgment to Amar Singh and Jaya Prada, who were expelled from Samajwadi Party on January 6, 2010.

It had referred the matter to a three-judge bench after framing seven questions for consideration, including whether an expelled MP or MLA would come under the ambit of party whip and whether defiance of such whip would make the elected representative liable to disqualification proceedings under the Tenth Schedule. Expelled from BJD in 2012, Mohapatra had moved the SC and got relief similar to Singh and Jaya Prada.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Arun Mishra and P C Pant, which had heard detailed arguments on the seven questions and reserved the verdict on February 15, on Wednesday surprised the counsel for the three petitioners by saying, “We are not answering the questions raised in the petitions.“

The bench passed a short order saying the term of these elected representatives had ended and the petitions had become infructuous.

In comparison, the reference judgment of November 15, 2010 by Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph dealt elaborately with the pleadings and had said, “Pending the refe rence, the decision in G Vishwanathan's case (the 1996 judgment) shall not apply to Amar Singh and Jaya Prada.“

With this order, the 1996 judgment will apply to all expelled MPs and MLAs immediately and they will have to adhere to the whip issued by the party on whose ticket they were elected to the House before being expelled.

Justices Kabir and Joseph had said, “We are convinced that the decision in G Vishwanathan's case merits another look as far as members of the House who are expelled from their parties on whose banner they had been elected to the House are concerned, as they would be left completely vulnerable to the whims and fancies of the leaders of their parties.“