Punjabi-origin lawmaker takes oath on the Gita in Oz
Wednesday, 13/05/2015
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MELBOURNE: Punjabi-origin Daniel Mookhey on Tuesday became the first politician in Australia to be sworn in on the Bhagavad Gita when he took oath in New South Wales Parliament.
Mookhey, 32, was elected by the Labour to replace Steve Whan in the New South Wales upper house, making him the state’s first politician of Indian background. “It is an incredible honour and I am humbled to be the first Australian politician to take his oath of allegiance on the Gita,” he said.
Mookhey’s parents had migrated from Punjab to Australia in 1973. Born in Blacktown suburb, Mookhey holds three university degrees and currently works as a consultant to unions, charities and community groups.
“My story is only possible because Australia is so open and so welcoming to the contributions of people like my parents and I am thinking a lot about them today as I take my oath,” he said, adding the Gita is one of the world’s great religious texts, along with the Bible, the Quran and the Torah.
“It was an important backdrop to my childhood growing up in western Sydney. I am proud to sort of be using it today as a mark of respect to the people that have helped me get to where I have gotten today,” he said.
Mookhey said he hopes his time in the upper house was productive. “I will be a voice for a more modern state and much more modern city in which everyone is able to move around and spend time at work and with their family,” he was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
