Honouring The Railways: Aiswarya S Menon And Surekha Yadav Invited To PM Modi's Oath Ceremony

Special Guest at the Swearing-In

Aiswarya S Menon, a senior assistant loco pilot from the Chennai Division of Southern Railway, has been invited to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third consecutive oath-taking ceremony. She will be one of 8,000 special guests at the event.

Her Impressive Career

Ms. Menon works on Vande Bharat trains and has completed over 200,000 footplate hours. She has piloted various trains, including the Vande Bharat Express and Jan Shatabdi, and has worked on the Chennai-Vijayawada and Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express services since their commencement. She is known for her flexibility, alertness, and deep knowledge of railway signalling, earning praise from senior officials.

Asia's First Woman Loco Pilot Also Attending

Surekha Yadav, Asia's first woman loco pilot, will also attend the ceremony. She is currently piloting the Vande Bharat train from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Solapur. She is among the ten loco pilots who have been invited to the oath-taking ceremony. Ms. Yadav became India's first female train driver in 1988 and is the first woman to pilot the Vande Bharat Express.

Diverse Guest List

The guest list for the ceremony includes sanitation workers, transgenders, and labourers who worked on the Central Vista Project. Over 8,000 guests are expected at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

PM Modi's Oath Ceremony Details

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take his oath for the third time on Sunday evening, in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu at 7:15 PM at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

South Asian Leaders Invited

Leaders from South Asian countries have been invited, including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Invitations have also been sent to Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.

Historical Context

PM Modi will be the second Indian Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to win the election for the third time. Modi's third term will be a coalition government unlike Nehruji, as the BJP did not have a majority seat on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Coalition Government

The BJP seats were reduced to 240 seats from 303 in 2019. The BJP-led NDA, which won 352 seats in 2019, now holds 293 seats, still above the majority mark of 272. The BJP in the 2024 election relied on the allies, including Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party with 16 seats and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United with 12 seats, to form the government.

-Prisha Jaiswal