New Delhi, July 4: Four BJP members chosen for induction as ministers tomorrow are wondering whether, to be in the saddle, they have to get off it.
In other words, will they be allowed to pedal their way to Rashtrapati Bhavan for the swearing-in?
Anil Madhav Dave, Mansukh L. Mandaviya, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Krishna Raj - the lone woman among the four MPs - are used to cycling between home and Parliament on their speed bikes.
It helps that the distance is fairly short, just half a kilometre for a couple of them, because they live in government quarters in Lutyens Delhi.
"I'm tempted to take my bike out tomorrow too but I'm not sure whether protocol permits it," said Mandaviya, Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat and a Narendra Modi favourite.
He clarified that cycling was neither his "passion nor compulsion". But when, during a recent session of Parliament, fellow member Dave mooted an informal "climate club", Mandaviya was among the first to join in.
"A bicycle has many uses. It keeps me healthy and saves me the hassle of organising a car and a driver. Besides, all of us have to be mindful of our obligation to reduce carbon emissions," Mandaviya said piously.
Dave, a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, said: "We have had no formal communication from the President's office on what mode of transport should be used. So I won't take a chance, I'll hop into a car."
Krishna, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, was candid: "There's no way I shall use a bike tomorrow - not for a ceremony like the swearing-in."
Asked whether, after she became a minister, she would continue to bike her way to office, Krishna said: "I would love to."
"In any case," she added, "I take my bicycle out only when I feel like wearing a salwar-kurta. But in a sari - no, of course not. I guess, as a minister, I should be seen more often in a sari."
Dave had another worry: nobody had so far taken any great note of his habit of cycling but a minister pedalling to office could become an object of commentary and visuals.
"I'm not a show-off. I'm one of those who uses the Metro in Delhi (for longer distances) and a bicycle in my hometown, Bhopal," he said.
He is ambivalent about using the bicycle as minister. "If my office is close enough, why not? But of course, Parliament felt like home - it was ours. I have to see what a ministry feels like," the former Sangh pracharak (whole-timer) said.
And yes, the "climate club" will remain even after they take up their new roles. The club plans to start pushing for designated cycle lanes in New Delhi, as in the West.
