A Second Chance!

The Election Results were announced on the 16th. Six days later, on the 22nd, the first of the swearings-in took place at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In the audience, among hundreds of bejewelled women and sherwani-wrapped men, were Youth Congress President and (fingers crossed) future Prime Minister of India, Rahul Gandhi, his brother-in-law and sister Priyanka. The ceremony started at 6:33 pm and lasted till 7:15 pm. Dr. Manmohan Singh was the first to take oath. Since I had never before watched a swearing-in ceremony with such attention, I discovered that there were two different kinds of oaths from which one could choose; one which required you to "swear in the name of God" and another which required you to "solemnly affirm". Both the oaths came in Hindi or English. Apart from the Prime Minister, 19 Ministers too oath. Their portfolios had yet been declared but there was talk that P. Chidambaram would be shifted to Home, Pranab Mukherjee given Finance, Sharad Pawar Agriculture and most exciting of all for the people of Bengal Mamata Banerjee would be given Railways. She was! I used to think life never gave you a second chance. Apparently life can be astonishingly generous sometimes. This was the Ministry which she had only a few years ago as Minister in the-then BJP-led Govt. Barely a year into her term, she had stunned and dismayed the nation by suddenly resigning. The image of her being a little touched in the head got stuck to her. Now is her chance to prove that she is not the madwoman in the static. If she simply does her job well, that will in itself be her 2011 state election campaign. Like most people in this state I wish her a cool head.