Parliament dress codes should retain neutrality

A political row over a dress mandate for the staff at our democracy's legislative heart comes down to whether promotion of the ruling party's iconography is okay. Use an association test.

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A special session of Parliament is slated to start on 18 September. Even as its urgency trends online as a mystery and a new triangular building to replace the circular one is readied for an opening, a controversy has broken out over the Centre’s decision to change the uniform of its secretariat staff: An internal circular says that its marshals, security staff, officers, chamber attendants and drivers have been issued new uniforms, which they must don once this legislative institution moves to its new premises. Designed by the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), the revised ensemble includes trousers, cream jackets, cream shirts with pink lotus motifs printed on them, brightly coloured sarees with jackets for women, and Manipuri headgear for marshals. Women officers and drivers have been assigned separate liveries for summer and winter, and the safari suits of security personnel will change to army camouflage from 19 September. While these revisions have been pitched as “an Indian touch," the stylized water lily caught opposition attention. The fac