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The Hindu
The Hindu
National
The Hindu Bureau

Why use lotus motif on uniforms of parliamentary staff, asks Congress

Responding to news that the new uniform for parliamentary staff will have lotus motif, the Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP of making Parliament “partisan” and questioned why the BJP’s election symbol is being used in the new uniform.

Posting a video on X (formerly known as Twitter), Congress whip in the Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore asked why India’s national animal, tiger, or the national bird, peacock, was not used in the uniform.

Also Read | Lotus in G20 logo: party symbol or national flower?

“Why lotus only? Why can’t a peacock or why can’t a tiger? Oh, they’re not BJP party election symbol. Why this fall sir Om Birla?,” asked Mr. Tagore, tagging Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla while using the hashtag “#NewDressforParliamentStaff”.

Special session

During the five-day special session of Parliament that will start on September 18 and will be held in the new building, according to news reports, parliamentary staff will be given new uniforms that will have a distinctively ‘traditional touch’. Women staff members will have sarees with new prints while men will be wearing khaki trousers, cream-coloured jackets and shirts with lotus motif.

“...they chose to put the Lotus in the dress code of the Parliamentary staff, because the BJP’s symbol is the Lotus,” Mr. Tagore alleged in a video that he posted on his X handle.

“How cheap they are. They did it in G-20 also. Now also they are doing it and saying it is the national flower. This kind of pettiness is not right. Hope the BJP grows up and not make the Parliament a one-sided partisan thing. It is unfortunate. The Parliament was above all parties. It shows that the BJP is interfering in every other institution,” he added.

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