India’s Modi takes oath as prime minister for 2nd term

By Shuriah Niazi and Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI, India (AA) - Gaining a landslide victory in India’s general election, Narendra Modi Thursday has sworn in as the prime minister of the country for a second consecutive term in Delhi.

Modi and his ministers took their oaths of office before President Ramnath Kovind in a ceremony attended by more than 6,000 guests.

Among the attendees of the swearing-in ceremony were President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov, Myanmar’s President U Win Myint, Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena, Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid, Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Prime Minister of Bhutan Dr Lotay Tshering, Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth, and Thailand’s special envoy minister Grisada Boonrach.

With a focus on 'neighbourhood first' policy, India had invited leaders of the member states of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

BIMSTEC is a regional organization comprising of seven member states "lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity".

The sub-regional South and South-East Asian group includes Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

In 2014, when Modi came to power, he had invited all the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) group leaders, including the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif for the oath ceremony. This time, however, there was no invitation to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan from India for the swearing-in ceremony.

Hundreds of parliamentarians, the elite of bureaucracy and Bollywood film stars were in attendance of the ceremony, as well.

Separately, BJP President Amit Shah, former Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and many others took oath of office as ministers.

Their ministries and portfolios will be announced later.

Naqvi is the only Muslim in the Modi cabinet. He is the senior leader of BJP and the party’s prominent face.

In the previous team, he was the Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs in 2014. Subsequently, in 2016, he also got additional charge of Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats in the 542 contested constituencies in the general elections, with the results announced last week.

The ceremony was held under high security measures in Delhi.

"Over 10,000 security personnel from Delhi Police and paramilitary forces were deployed on account of the swearing-in-ceremony," reported in the local media quoting police officials.