A minister in UPA era, AK Antony did not take oath in name of god

Congress leader AK Antony | File Photo: ANI

New Delhi: Congress veteran and former defence minister A.K. Antony is considerably hurt at his techie son Anil’s decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday.

The former Kerala chief minister, who has never sworn a minister’s oath in the name of God, called it a “completely wrong move”.

Incidentally, Antony was among six members in former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 2009 Cabinet who were “non-believers”. He has always “solemnly affirmed” that he would “bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established”.

At the post-induction meet Thursday, Anil described his decision as a shift in duty – “Many Congress leaders believe their duty is to a particular family, but I believe that my duty is to work for the people”.

But the irony behind his party switch was not lost on many.

Anil’s present party says its driving force is a “national approach to all issues rising above caste and religion”, but the BJP has relentlessly come under Opposition fire for fuelling an ideology that differentiates between people on the basis of religion.

On the other hand, the 82-year-old Antony is a self-professed atheist, who often advocates the philosophy of spiritual leader and social reformer Sree Narayana Guru – a champion of equality and justice in caste-ridden Kerala.

Historically, members of India’s communist parties don’t take oaths in the name of God. But when three members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) did just that in the 14^th Kerala Assembly in 2021, the party decided to school cadres on their “rational and scientific consciousness”. The CPI(M) focused on strengthening the party’s educational programmes among its new members.

In 2021, when M.K. Stalin took oath as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, he had carefully left out God from his oath. “I, Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, do solemnly swear by my conscience,” Stalin said in Tamil. But that too was nothing surprising as atheism is a prominent feature of the Dravidian movement.